Better Health: Smart Health Commentary

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John Briley

John Briley is a journalist and Web content specialist with 17 years' experience covering a range of health topics, from breaking health news and fitness to travel health issues and FDA regulation of drugs, medical devices and food.

He authored the Washington Post's popular Moving Crew fitness column and hosted online fitness chats on Washingtonpost.com for three years, and wrote numerous health features for that newspaper. He then worked at the consumer health portal Revolution Health, where he ran the news and home page production, wrote features and oversaw production of a number of large-scale health guides. His most recent title was vice president of special editorial projects.

Briley has appeared on National Public Radio, CNN, the BBC and the Travel Channel. His writing has appeared in dozens of publications, including Washington Post, L.A. Times, Dallas Morning News, Miami Herald, Men's Journal, National Geographic Traveler, Skiing and the Harvard Health Letter.

Alan Dappen, M.D.

Alan Dappen, M.D., is the founder and CEO of Doctokr Family Medicine. Dr. Alan Dappen graduated from the University of Washington Medical School in 1979. He completed his Family Medicine residency in 1983 at the University of California, Davis program in Modesto, California. He completed a Song-Brown Fellowship in 1984, and coursework in Family Therapy in 1989. He has remained Board-certified in Family Medicine since 1983. Dr. Dappen has practiced medicine in California, Kenya, Mexico, and since 1992, in Vienna, VA. He is an Associate Clinical Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Department of Family Practice, and recently became a graduate of Leadership Fairfax. He has published medical journal articles on diverse topics, including malaria, nutrition, and smoking. He speaks Spanish fluently. Dr. Dappen is the founder of DocTalker.

Cynthia Haines, M.D.

Cynthia Haines, MD, is Chief Medical Officer of HealthDay and Managing Editor of HealthDay-Physician's Briefing. Dr. Haines is also the face and voice of the daily *"HealthDay TV" *video segments, directed to both traditional and new media outlets. Dr. Haines' mission is to contribute to the empowerment of the patient within us all through education and communication.

James Herndon, M.D.

James H. Herndon, MD, MBA is a board-certified orthopaedic surgeon and chairman emeritus of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Partners Healthcare (an integrated health system founded by Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital) in Boston, Mass.

In addition, he is the William H. and Joanna A. Harris Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Harvard Medical School. In 2003, Dr. Herndon became the President of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. He has also served as President of the American Orthopaedic Association and the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery and as Chairman of the Residency Review Committee for Orthopaedic Surgery.

Dr. Herndon graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine. After preliminary training in general surgery at the University of Pennsylvania, he completed a residency in orthopaedic surgery at the Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Residency Program in Boston. After serving as chief of Amputee Service at Valley Forge General Hospital during the Vietnam War, he was in private practice for 4 years in Michigan. He then spent 25 years working as Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Brown University, the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard Medical School.

Throughout his career, Dr. Herndon has won a variety of awards, including the Golden Apple Teaching Award from the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh and 2 Partners in Excellence Awards from Partners Healthcare. In addition, he's delivered more than 30 keynote and presidential guest lectures at national and international meetings, has been awarded honorary membership in 7 international professional organizations (including the Royal College of Surgeons of England) and has received 3 honorary degrees. He has been listed in several editions of Who's Who as well as listed as one of the "Best Doctors in America" since 2001.

Dr. Herndon is widely published in professional and peer reviewed journals and is a frequent speaker in the United States and abroad. His areas of expertise in orthopaedic surgery include trauma, reconstruction of the upper extremity, arthritis, patient safety, medical errors and leadership issues in medicine today. He is currently chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.

Disclosures: Dr. Herndon is a consultant for Navigant Consulting, Inc., The Orthopaedics Health Network, and the Orthopaedic Practice Newsletter.

Val Jones, M.D.

Val Jones, M.D., is the CEO of Better Health, LLC, a medical blogger network and education company. Most recently she was the Senior Medical Director of Revolution Health, a consumer health portal with over 120 million page views per month in its network.

Dr. Jones is the author of the popular blog, "Getting Better with Dr. Val", which won The Best New Medical Blog award in 2007 and was a finalist in the health policy and ethics category for 2008.

Dr. Jones has been quoted by various major media outlets, including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the LA Times. She has been a guest on over 20 different radio shows, and has been featured on CBS and ABC News. Dr. Jones volunteered as a rehabilitation medicine physician at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and is a practice partner at DocTalker Family Medicine in Vienna, Virginia. She is a graduate of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Gwen Mayes, J.D.

Gwen Mayes, a resident of Alexandria, VA, is a freelance health and wellness writer specializing in areas of bioethics, women's health and health law. She is the featured columnist for A Health Step, a monthly column in Today's Woman magazine. She has extensive publications in both consumer and trade publications including WebMD, Medscape, Infertility Times, Transplant News, and the International Spa Association. Ms. Mayes has an undergraduate degree in Biology and Pre-Medical Studies from Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, a Masters of Medical Science from Emory University and a JD with honors from the University of Maryland with a concentration in health law. She has 25-plus years experience in health policy and health administration on both federal and state levels and was the first Executive Director of the Office of Women's Physical and Mental Health for the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Currently, Ms. Mayes is working to shape federal public policy that advances medical technology for women with heart disease. Diagnosed in 1988 with a severe congenital heart disorder, Ms. Mayes has spent a life-time working to advance health and wellness for all women living with heart disease. In her spare time, she teaches writing workshops specializing in journaling for wellness and advocacy writing for health professionals. She is a national spokesperson for WomenHeart.

Mary Lynn McPherson, Pharm.D.

Mary Lynn McPherson, PharmD, BCPS, CPE is a professor and vice chair in the department of Pharmacy Practice and Science at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in Baltimore. She works in both hospice and primary care, serving as the director of pharmacotherapy services at the UniversityCare at Waxter Center in Baltimore.

Dr. McPherson is president of the American Society of Pain Educators and a fellow of the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists and the American Pharmacists Association. She teaches and publishes extensively on pain management and palliative care.

Dr. McPherson is also a 2010-2011 fellow with the Mayday Pain & Society Fellowship supported by The Mayday Fund, a New York-based private foundation dedicated to alleviating human physical pain.

Geeta Nayyar, M.D.

As Principal Medical Officer of Vangent, Dr. Nayyar applies her expertise in clinical medicine, health policy, medical communications and public health to her role of directing innovative health information management and technology solutions for Vangent's health care customers. Dr. Nayyar works with government agencies, states, hospitals and other health organizations to tackle some of the most challenging patient and healthcare delivery issues today.

Dr. Nayyar is a member of Vangent’s Health Strategy and Innovation Group, which helps Vangent’s customers to leverage the power of health care information technology and innovation to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of healthcare for individuals and populations. Dr. Nayyar provides particular expertise in helping clinicians adopt and utilize information technology in ways that improve rather than detract from patient-provider encounters.

In addition to her role at Vangent, Dr. Nayyar continues to teach and practice medicine in her position as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine in the department of Rheumatology at the George Washington University.

She is also an accomplished author and speaker on topics regarding medical care, health care reform and health policy. She has appeared on ABC, has been quoted by The Washington Post, and is an expert panel provider for the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research.

Prior to joining Vangent, Dr. Nayyar held the position of Chief Medical Officer, North America, for APCO Worldwide Inc., where she was responsible for providing strategic counsel concerning alliance development and health care issue management and advised organizations on health policy issues in the private and nonprofit sectors.

Dr. Nayyar holds a Doctor of Medicine from the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami where she attended the Honors Program in Medicine, a six-year accelerated medical BS/MD program, and completed her Internal Medicine residency and Rheumatology fellowship at George Washington University. She will complete a Masters of Business Administration degree from George Washington University in 2010.

Steve Simmons, M.D.

Steve is a Board-certified Internist, who received his medical degree from the University of Tennessee, and completed his residency ant St. Joseph Hospital in Denver, Colorado. In 1996, Steve was selected by his peers to receive the Dr. Annie Yee Johnson Memorial Award for compassion and professionalism. He has spent the past 10 years working in primary and urgent care at Kaiser Permanente. Steve and Alan have worked together for the past five years.

Stacy Stryer, M.D.

Stacy Beller Stryer, M.D., FAAP graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College in 1985, where she majored in psychobiology. After graduation, she worked at the National Institute of Mental Health before attending Yale University School of Medicine. She received her medical degree in 1991 and completed her pediatrics training at Childrens Hospital of Northern California in 1994. Dr. Stryer joined the Indian Health Service as a pediatrician and the Health Promotion/Disease Prevention Coordinator in Kayenta, Arizona. In 1997, she moved to Maryland, where she is currently in private practice. Dr. Stryer is also an author, speaker, consultant and blogger. She recently authored a book on anorexia and is a contributing author on a book about pediatricians, both of which are due on the bookshelves mid-2009. She is currently working on her third book. Dr. Stryer has consulted and written for the National Institutes of Health, Revolution Health, and currently, Better Health.

Valerie Tinley, N.P.

Valerie Tinley is a Certified Family Nurse Practitioner. She has 30 years of experience in nursing that includes obstetrics, operating room and 12 years in breast cancer research. In 1997, she graduated with honors from George Mason/George Washington University Collaborative Program with a Masters of Science in Nursing/Family Nurse Practitioner. Since then, her work experience has been in urgent care, family practice, infectious disease, rheumatology, and health exams, particularly dealing with women's health issues and pre-surgical screening of preoperative patients. She brings with her a wealth of healthcare knowledge, experience, and a caring attitude.

Olajide Williams, M.D.

Dr Olajide Williams is the Associate Director of Neurology of Columbia University's department of neurology at Harlem Hospital Center, Director of Operations for Harlem Hospital Stroke Center, and Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurology at Columbia University. He has authored numerous scientific articles and book chapters, and is one of nine members of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke External Review Group for the Clinical Research Collaboration, charged with connecting communities to NIH research. Dr Williams is a recipient of several prestigious awards. These include; the New York City Health and Hospital Corporation Urban Health Award for mitigating health care disparities, the Distinguished Teacher Award and the Gold Foundation Award for Humanism in Medicine and Excellence in Teaching of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, a National Humanism in Medicine Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges. Dr Williams confronts stroke disparities with innovative grass root interventions and is the Principal Investigator for National Stroke Association's Hip Hop Stroke Elementary School program and Harlem Hospital Center's city-wide Hip Hop HEALS (Healthy Eating And Living in Schools) program. He is a National Spokesperson for the National Stroke Association and the American Heart Association. Dr Williams currently practices medicine at Columbia University Medical Center and Harlem Hospital Center. He is board certified in Neurology and Electrodiagnostic Medicine.

Joseph Albietz, M.D.

Joseph Albietz, M.D. is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado, Denver, and The Children’s Hospital. In addition to his service in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, his time is divided between translational research in the field of pediatric pulmonary hypertension and medical education where he acts as the pediatric intensive care associate fellowship director. Dr. Albietz graduated from the University of Missouri at Kansas City and completed his residency training in pediatrics and a fellowship in pediatric critical care at the University of Colorado, Denver. He is board certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Critical Care.

In addition to writing for Science Based Medicine Dr. Albietz also periodically contributes to the James Randi Educational Foundation’s (JREF) Swift Blog and coordinated JREF’s vaccine drive to benefit the Southern Nevada Health District.

Dr. Albietz has no conflicts of interest to disclose nor any ties to industry. His writing reflects his opinion alone, is not meant to represent personal medical advice, and does not necessarily represent the position or opinions of his department, university or hospital.

Kimball Atwood IV, M.D.

Kimball Atwood IV, MD is a practicing anesthesiologist who is also board-certified in internal medicine. He had been interested in pseudoscience for years, but became active in 2000 after a nursing conference at his own hospital advocated Therapeutic Touch, Guided Imagery, and several other implausible practices as effective treatments for pleural mesothelioma. Shortly thereafter he became a member of the Massachusetts Special Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medical Practitioners, and subsequently wrote its Minority Report opposing licensure for naturopaths.

Dr. Atwood has written many articles and treatises on implausible medical claims, among which are several concerning naturopathy, such as here and here and on the Naturowatch website. He has provided expert opinion to the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine regarding non-standard practices. He is an associate editor of the Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine and co-editor of Naturowatch. He is particularly concerned with implausible claims being promoted, tacitly or otherwise, by medical schools and government. He is also dubious about the ethics of human trials of such claims.

Early in his investigations he noticed that academic medical treatments of implausible claims are typically more optimistic than the evidence warrants. He observed that this is because such treatments consider only clinical trials while ignoring other, usually more compelling evidence: facts of nature, for example. He soon found a few others who shared this opinion, including Drs. Steven Novella and Wallace Sampson of this Blog. All recognized that the phenomenon exposes a major weakness in "Evidence-Based Medicine" (EBM): its calculus lacks the formal inclusion of much external evidence, particularly basic science. EBM therefore presumes an unjustified faith in the rigor of its only real tools: clinical trials, "frequentist statistics," and meta-analyses. Dr. Atwood is pleased that the Science Based Medicine Blog is a forum for discussion of this topic, among others.

Paul Auerbach, M.D.

Dr. Paul S. Auerbach is Professor of Surgery in the Division of Emergency Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Auerbach is a founder and past president of the Wilderness Medical Society, editor of the definitive medical reference text "Wilderness Medicine" (5th Edition), and author of "Medicine for the Outdoors," the leading book on outdoor health for laypersons.

Dr. Auerbach serves on the National Medical Committee for the National Ski Patrol System and is a recipient of the "DAN America Award" from the Divers Alert Network, "Outstanding Contribution in Education Award" from the American College of Emergency Physicians, a "NOGI Award" in 2006 from the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences, "Diver of the Year" for Science in 2008 from Beneath the Sea, and "DAN/Rolex Diver of the Year" in 2009.

Dr. Auerbach is the world's leading authority on wilderness medicine. He practices emergency medicine, teaches, performs research, and advises numerous agencies and organizations, including serving as an advisory board member to the AARP "Fat 2 Fit" Community Challenge. Dr. Auerbach has been hailed as a "Hero of Emergency Medicine" by the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Cynthia Bailey, M.D.

Dr. Cynthia Bailey is a Board Certified Dermatologist practicing general dermatology in Northern California since 1991. She received her dermatology training at the University of California at San Diego where she also conducted research on skin photobiology, and was on the clinical teaching faculty. After moving to Northern California she was again on the clinical teaching faculty of the UCSF Family Medicine program in her home town until diving head first into organized medicine. She is a Past President of the Sonoma County Medical Association, and has been both a Delegate and a Trustee for the California Medical Association. Locally she has served on the Board of many non-profit medical organizations. In response to unique instability in her community’s health care marketplace she co-founded a 3 year project that included several high profile Health Care Summits and numerous working groups to address the challenges. Key collaborative projects were created in the community that continue to today, and that significantly enhanced practical aspects of health care in Sonoma County.

Throughout her career, Dr. Bailey has practiced dermatology full time since finishing her dermatology residency. She is first and foremost a clinician with a pragmatic approach to care and a heavy emphasis on patient education. She’s now diving head first into a new project to ‘translate’ physician quality skin health information for a web audience.

Joseph Banken, Ph.D.

Joseph A. Banken, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist in Arkansas and Texas with over 15 years of experience in the professional practice of psychology. He has been listed in the National Register for Health Providers of Psychology for over 10 years.

As a psychologist who has worked in a variety of treatment programs including Telehealth, he has treated the majority of behavioral health concerns and illnesses that occur in children and adults. He has a special interest in women's health issues and substance abuse.

Dr. Banken continues to conduct an active outpatient practice and has office hours in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences where he is a faculty member in the College of Medicine. Dr. Banken is also an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Psychology at The University of Arkansas at Little Rock. In addition to University responsibilities, he continues clinical research and publication in areas of behavioral health, and serves as a reviewer of a national journal for mental health.

Vicente Baos, M.D.

Graduated in 1982 at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, completed his training at Puerta de Hierro Hospital (Madrid) in 1987. Member of Editorial Board at 'Therapeutiction in Spanish Healthcare System' ('Información Terapéutica del Sistema Nacional de Salud'), a journal published by Spain's Ministry of Health since 1994.

Dr. Baos also coordinates Prescription Drug Use group at Spanish Primary Care Association (Semfyc) since its creation in 2003. He is a consultant at Spain's Drug Agency ('Agencia Española de Medicamentos y Productos Sanitarios'). Author of several books on prescription drug use (some of them for MD's and others targeted at general public) and a long list of scientific articles.
His main areas of interest are Primary Care and the analysis and evaluation of pharmacological therapies.

Ramona Bates, M.D.

Ramona L Bates, MD has been a solo plastic surgeon in Little Rock, AR since 1990. She began writing the blog, Suture for a Living, in May 2007 and has been an active participant in the medical blog community.

Dr Bates was born in Ft Leonard Wood, MO, but considers herself from Arkansas as she was raised there. She received a bachelor of arts degree in Physics from the University of Arkansas. She is now on their Industrial Advisory Committee for the microEP program.

She earned her medical degree at the UAMS in Little Rock, AR. Between her first and second years she worked as a research assistant for NASA at Moffett Fields, CA where she worked on a project studying the effects of zero gravity on the human body.

She did her Flexible Internship at Earl K Long Hospital in Baton Rouge, LA. She did three years of general surgery training at OVMC in Wheeling, WV then did a Head & Neck Fellowship at Mercy Hospital, Pittsburg, PA prior to going to Boston, MA to do her plastic surgery residency at Boston University Hospital. She then returned to Little Rock, AR to do a Hand Surgery Fellowship with the Arkansas Hand Surgery Clinic. Upon completing her training, she began her private practice as a solo physician.

Disclosures: Dr. Bates is a member of the microEP Industrial Advisory Committee, University of Arkansas
Personal Blog: Suture For A Living

Phil Baumann, R.N.

Phil Baumann is a registered nurse who blogs about how social software can be used most effectively in health care. He is actively engaged in ongoing discussions about health care technologies and how the Web is rapidly changing the way we communicate, collaborate and live our daily lives. He is a blogger, consultant, workshop leader and speaker who helps organizations and the public at large understand the opportunities and challenges which the Web poses from a health care perspective. He also founded #RNchat, which is the first real-time conversation of registered nurses on Twitter.

Phil is actually a second degree nurse who earned his BSN from Drexel University. His first degree was in Accounting which he received from the University of Delaware and his career was in accounting, finance, treasury operations and systems implementation. His enterprise background in industries as diverse as Energy and Financial Services coupled with his past clinical experience in ICU have given him a unique view of how social networking and health care relate to each other. He's passionate about evolving technologies and explores the relationship between social software and health care on his blog . For a snapshot of his philosophy and practical views on how to dovetail social media with health care, check out his 140 Health Care Uses for Twitter. You can follow his real-time updates here.

Michael Bell, M.D.

Michael Bell, MD, is Associate Director for Infection Control at CDC′s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion. The division promotes the protection of patients and healthcare personnel, and improvements in safety and quality of healthcare. Examples of activities include producing guidelines for prevention of healthcare associated infections, programs for prevention of antimicrobial resistance, and improvements in basic safe medical practices such as safe injections.

His first position at CDC was in the Hospital Infections Program, investigating outbreaks of healthcare-associated illness and writing national infection control guidelines. Prior to his current position, he was the chief of the Epidemiology Unit at the Viral Special Pathogens Branch, addressing infection control for high-risk pathogens such as Ebola virus.

He received his medical degree from the University of Washington and trained in Internal Medicine at the University of Colorado, and in Infectious Diseases at the University of California San Francisco.

Jeffrey Benabio, M.D.

Jeffrey Benabio, M.D., grew up in a little Italian neighborhood in Providence, Rhode Island. An Ivy League graduate, he was also ranked number one in his medical school class. While in medical school, he served as class president and as president of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society, to which he was elected in his third year. He also served as a member of the North Carolina Medical Society House of Delegates.

In his final year of medical school, Dr. Benabio was honored with the prestigious Faculty Award, the R.W. Pritchard History of Medicine Award, and the Excellence in Dermatology Award. He served as chief resident in his dermatology residency in Southern California. Dr. Benabio is the author of numerous scientific articles and abstracts and has written a book chapter on lasers in dermatology. He has appeared or been mentioned in The Wall Street Journal, Muscle and Fitness Magazine, Dermatology News, Dermatology World, Self Magazine, Allure Magazine, Details Magazine, AOL Online, MSNBC Online, FOX Online, Woman’s World Magazine, Best Health Magazine, O, The Oprah Magazine, Elle Magazine. Glamour, Bottom Line Personal, and on iVillage.com. He has been featured on FOX5 News in San Diego. He is also the founder of The Dermatology Blog, which has had over one million unique visitors.

Dr. Benabio is board certified in dermatology and is a fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology. He is a Volunteer Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of California San Diego. He lobbies for the American Academy of Dermatology Association in Washington, DC, and is a member of a number of professional organizations including the American Medical Associations, the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery, the Dermatology Foundation, and the American Society for Lasers in Medicine and Surgery. He lives in downtown San Diego and in addition to blogging loves bodybuilding and politics.

Disclosures: Dr. Benabio is a founding member of and the skin care expert for Livestrong.com.
Personal Blog: The Dermatology Blog

Jessica Berthold

Jessica Berthold is the editor of ACP Hospitalist, and an associate editor of ACP Internist. A journalist for the past eleven years, Jessica has won numerous awards for her writing from the Association of Healthcare Publication Editors, the Society for National Association Publishing and the Pennsylvania Women's Press Association. Her areas of interest include mental health, international health and neurology. Prior to working at the American College of Physicians, Jessica wrote about energy for Dow Jones Newswires and popular culture for the Allentown (PA) Morning Call, where she penned a syndicated column called "Bloggernaut". Her work has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune and Toronto Globe and Mail, among others.

Neil Bonginkosi Lawrence Taverner, M.D.

Neil Taverner, M.D., is a South African general surgeon. He works in a province that has a reputation for mismanagement and corruption. Although he primarily serves in a private hospital, he also occasionally helps out in the state hospital (almost always late at night or early in the morning). Dr. Taverner describes himself as "a storyteller relating the often bizarre things that go into the forming of a South African surgeon."

Scott Bowen

Scott Bowen is the deputy director of the Office of Public Health Genomics. He earned his Masters of Public Health degree in Epidemiology from Tulane University. Mr. Bowen came to CDC under the Outstanding Scholar Program in 1992 and had previously served on active duty as a non-commissioned officer with the U.S. Army. His past CDC roles included service as the Management Officer for the CDC/OD offices and as the deputy director for the Division of Public Health Surveillance and Informatics. He has also worked for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry where he served as an epidemiologist and as deputy chief of the Health Investigations Branch.

Toni Brayer, M.D.

Dr. Brayer graduated cum laude from Arizona State University and received her Medical Degree from the University of Arizona. She is now the Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for the West Bay Region of Sutter Health in Northern California. She continues her practice of Internal Medicine in San Francisco and was named a "Best Doctor" annually from 1997-2004. A former Chief of Staff at California Pacific Medical Center and past-president of the San Francisco Medical Society, Dr. Brayer was a delegate to the California Medical Association and served as vice-chair of the board for the Institute for Medical Quality until 2003. She is a fellow in the American College of Physicians and served on the governor's council of ACP. An Associate Clinical Professor at University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, Dr. Brayer also served as clinical faculty at CPMC where she designed an ambulatory elective for Internal Medicine residents.

Before assuming her current position with Sutter Health, Dr. Brayer served as Vice-Chair of the CPMC Board of Directors and a member of Sutter Health's Public Policy Committee. She currently serves on the Board of Physicians Foundation at CPMC and is a director for the Medical Insurance Exchange of California. In 2005, and again in 2008, the San Francisco Business Times named Dr. Brayer to its list of "The Bay Area's 100 most influential women in business." She has written extensively about health care issues, public policy and quality and is a recognized physician leader.

Toni Brayer is the mother of two and enjoys tennis, gardening, and writing.

Nancy Brown, Ph.D.

Nancy L. Brown, a developmental psychologist, is a senior research associate at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) Research Institute and teaches Adolescent Sexuality and Gender, Culture and HIV in the department of human biology at Stanford University. Her research activities include developing interventions and conducting research related to adolescents, prostate cancer, asthma, and preventions of sexually transmitted infections (STI) and HIV.

Nancy currently coordinates two health information Web sites for preteens (www.pamf.org/preteen) and teens (www.pamf.org/teen) and is completing an evaluation on a Bullying Module for 4th and 5th graders available on the preteen site. She is currently a member of the Materials Review Board for the California Healthy Kids Resource Center, serves on the editorial board of the Journal of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Education for Adolescents and Children, and is a member of the American School Health Association, the American Public Health Association, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), the Society for Research on Adolescence, and the Society for Adolescent Medicine.

Nancy is the mother of two daughters, ages 11 and 14. They live with a dog, cat, and hamster and love ballroom dancing, gardening, baking bread, watching birds and riding their bikes.

Linda Burke-Galloway, M.D.

Linda Burke-Galloway, M.D., did not set out to become a physician, but as the descendent of two 19th century midwives her vocation was inevitable. After graduating from Columbia University School of Social Work, she felt compelled to “do more” and wondered with the next step in her life’s journey would be. On a hot summer night, she witnessed the birth of a baby while working as a volunteer at Harlem Hospital in New York, and the trajectory of her life changed forever. Six years later, she graduated from Boston University School of Medicine, and in 1991 she finished her OB/GYN residency training at the very institution where she had witnessed her first delivery.

Several media outlets have sought her expertise including CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen, AOL Latino, The Good Life Channel 45 TV in Orlando, Florida, and Hispanosphere Orlando Sentinel. She has also been quoted in numerous publications including iVillage, Chicago Tribune, AOL Wallet Pop, Orlando Sentinel, Parenting.com, Pregnancy.com, Divine Caroline, Alive magazine and Favor Magazine. She is also the recipient of many awards including LifeScript.com’s “Top 21 American Women Physicians 2009,” Consumer Research Council’s “America’s Top Obstetrician & Gynecologist Award 2009,” and Alive magazine’s “Women of the Year Award 2010.”

Although she is grateful to be recognized for her talents, her greatest accomplishment is being a mother of two active sons and happily married to the same man for almost 20 years.

Stacey Butterfield

Stacey Butterfield is an associate editor of ACP Hospitalist and ACP Internist. Prior to working at the American College of Physicians, Stacey was the editor of the Copper Cable, published in Frisco, Co. She previously wrote for the The Nation magazine, the Summit (Co.) Independent, and the Williamsport (Pa.) Sun-Gazette. Stacey is currently pursuing a master's degree in communication, policy and health at the University of Pennsylvania.

Bruce Campbell, M.D.

Bruce Campbell is a head and neck cancer surgeon. He grew up in the Chicago area, graduating from Purdue University and Rush Medical College. He completed an otolaryngology residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) and a head and neck surgery fellowship at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. He is Professor in the MCW Department of Otolaryngology and in the Institute for Health and Society (Bioethics and Medical Humanities). He works at Froedtert Hospital and the Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center, both in Milwaukee, WI.
His professional time is divided between patient care and working with residents and medical students. He is also active in the MCW Medical Humanities and Global Health Programs.
In 2007, he started posting essays at “Reflections in a Head Mirror.” His writing reflects the unexpected moments he has experienced during patient care, teaching, and human interaction. In addition, he contributes essays to WUWM - Milwaukee Public Radio. He has had essays published in JAMA’s “A Piece of My Mind” and in the Journal of Clinical Oncology’s “Art of Oncology.”
He lives near Milwaukee and is immensely proud of his wife and four children.

Enrico Cantu

Enrico Cantu is a multi-faceted blogger concentrating on both health, information technology, and musical topics. He received his B.S. and additional graduate coursework from the University of Houston in Biochemical and Biophysical Sciences. His research interests involved both molecular dynamics and homology modeling of membrane proteins. He leveraged his computational biochemistry background to leave schooland work as a successful private computer consultant in the DC area.

He moved back to Texas and pursued a career in medicine starting in 2005 which ended in his third year due to unforeseen illness and subsequent administrative issues with the school. The protracted recovery has recently and thankfully concluded but has stalled his return to medical school until 2010. He has used all of the experiences to blog about the duality of being both physician-in-training and now patient, having been on both sides of the examining table.

Enrico is also a classical pianist and has hosted Grand Rounds three times, each providing a unique insight into classical music and merging its universal themes with those of patient care and the human condition.

Denise Cardo, M.D.

Dr. Denise Cardo is the director of the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP), National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Cardo joined CDC in 1993 as a medical epidemiologist in the Hospital Infections Program (later named as Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion). After holding several leadership positions in DHQP, she was selected as division director in 2003.

Prior to joining CDC, she had a distinguished career in the division of infectious diseases at one of Brazil’s prestigious medical institutions, Escola Paulista de Medicina, Sao Paulo, Brazil, where she received her medical degree, completed her residency and fellowship, and joined the faculty as associated professor of infectious diseases. During 1990-1991, she did a sabbatical at the Hospital Epidemiology Program, University of Tennessee, Memphis.

Dr. Cardo has been involved in healthcare epidemiology and hospital infections since 1984 and is internationally recognized as an expert and leader in the area. Her interests include patient safety, occupational health, prevention of healthcare-associated infections, and antimicrobial resistance. She is the author of several research and reviewed papers including book chapters and has received several awards for her work.

Christopher Chang, M.D.

Christopher Chang, M.D. is a board-certified otolaryngology/head and neck surgeon with fellowship training in laryngology and voice disorders.

Dr. Chang graduated with honors from Yale University for both undergraduate and medical school. He then completed internship in general surgery as well as a residency in otolaryngology/head and neck surgery at Duke University.

Throughout his career, Dr. Chang has won a variety of awards including the “Joseph D. Siefker Outstanding Resident Teaching Award” and first prize for the social enterprise track of the annual Duke Business School Start-Up Challenge. Dr. Chang is widely published in professional and peer-reviewed journals and is a frequent guest lecturer at regional universities and conferences.

Dr. Chang is the manager of a successful medical YouTube channel and has been ranked as one of the “Most Viewed of All Time” directors. He is also the author of a popular blog for ear, nose, and throat (ENT) problems.

Dr. Charles

Dr. Charles is a family physician who writes about medical news, clinical studies, and curious bits of knowledge at his blog *The Examining Room of Dr. Charles*. He maintains a special interest in describing life in medicine through reflective vignettes and poems, and has a reverence for humanism and the often-heroic stories of people’s lives as they cope with suffering and disease.

Dr. Charles is the pen name under which the author prefers to write; his current practice and board certification in family medicine are confirmed by Better Health staff.

Richard Cooper, M.D.

Richard A. Cooper, M.D. is a Professor of Medicine and Senior Fellow in the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his medical education at Washington University School of Medicine and trained in internal medicine, hematology and oncology at the Harvard Medical Unit of the Boston City Hospital and the National Cancer Institute. Following several years on the faculty at Harvard, Cooper moved to Penn, first as Chief of the Hematology-Oncology and subsequently as Director of Penn’s Cancer Center, which he founded. In 1985 he joined the Medical College of Wisconsin as Executive Vice President and Dean and subsequently Director of its Health Policy Institute, which he also founded. In 2005, he returned to Penn as a Professor of Medicine in the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics.

Over the past 15 years, Dr. Cooper has focused his been a national leader on issues related to the supply of physicians and nonphysician clinicians and the dimensions of the health care system. Contrary to the conventional wisdom in the 1990s that the nation was developing a surplus of physicians, Cooper’s “Trend Model” of health care projected physician shortages of the magnitude now being experienced. Similarly, contrary to the conventional wisdom of today that geographic variation in health care is a manifestation of waste and inefficiency, the “Affluence-Poverty Nexus,” which Cooper described earlier this year, has demonstrated that poverty and other social determinants of health are the principle reasons for geographic variation in health care resources and utilization and should be the primary focus of health care reform.

Mark Crislip, M.D.

Mark Crislip MD has been a practicing Infectious Disease specialist in Portland, Oregon since 1990. He is Chief of Infectious Diseases for Legacy Health System.

He is responsible for the Quackcast, a skeptical review of Supplements, Complementary and Alternative Medicine, The Persilflagers Annotated Compendium of Infectious Disease Facts, Dogma and Opinion a guide to Infectious Diseases, the Persifalgers Puscast, a podcast review of Infectious Diseases, and Rubor, Dolor, Calor, Tumor, an infectious disease blog.

Kent Davidson, M.D.

Kent W. Davidson is a Family Physician currently in private practice at Arkansas Specialty Orthopaedics in Little Rock Arkansas where he serves as the director of Sports Medicine. He is a graduate of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences where he completed his Family Practice Residency in 1979. Prior to entering private practice, he was an Associate Professor of Family Practice in the Department of Family and Community Medicine in Little Rock where he served as Predoctoral and Residency Director. He is a diplomat of the American Board of Family Practice and holds a Certificate of Added Qualifications in Sports Medicine.

His clinical interests include health maintenance, exercise and fitness and musculoskeletal injuries. He has published and lectured extensively on sports medicine topics. He was the team physician for the Arkansas Riverblades professional hockey team and is currently the team physician for the Arkansas Twisters, an arena football team in Little Rock.

Erik Davis

Erik is a technology professional based in Toronto, focused on the intersection of the internet and the traditional media and telecommunications sectors. A reluctant blogger, he was inspired by the great work Skeptic North has done to combat misinformation and shoddy science reporting in the Canadian media, and in the public at large. Erik has a particular interest in critical reasoning, and in understanding why there’s so little of it in the public discourse.
You can follow Erik's occasional 140 character musings @erikjdavis

Steven Roy Daviss, M.D.

Steven Roy Daviss, MD, DFAPA, is the Chairman of Psychiatry at Baltimore Washington Medical Center, Maryland. He is board-certified in both Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine, and is certified by the ASCP in Clinical Psychopharmacology. Dr. Daviss' interests include psychopharmacology, pharmacogenetics, medical informatics, and health care policy. Dr. Daviss is a Past-President of the Maryland Psychiatric Society, is on the Standards Committee for URAC, and is on the P&T Committee for Maryland Medicaid. He also serves as Co-Chair for the Behavioral Health Work Group for CCHIT. He blogs at Shrink Rap with two fantastic co-bloggers, Anne Hanson, MD, and Dinah Miller, MD. They also have a popular podcast on iTunes called "My Three Shrinks."

John Di Saia, M.D.

John Di Saia, M.D. is a board-certified plastic surgeon in Orange County, California who specializes in breast and body contouring. He also practices “real medicine,” including reconstruction for trauma, skin, and breast cancer.

Dr. Di Saia is “BS-free,” which makes him unusual compared to many others who practice cosmetic surgery in Orange County. Many of his patients cite this among their reasons for choosing him over multiple alternatives in the area.

Dr. Di Saia’s blog, Truth in Cosmetic Surgery, is designed to educate and entertain the potential plastic surgery patient. Reader questions are answered and celebrity surgery analysis is done for kicks as well. Dr. Di Saia is frequently quoted in the Orange County Register. His medical practice website is OCBody.com.

Bob Doherty

Mr. Doherty is Senior Vice President of Governmental Affairs and Public Policy for the American College of Physicians (ACP), the largest physician specialty society and second largest medical organization in the United States. ACP represents 126,000 internal medicine physicians and medical students. Mr. Doherty has 30 years of health policy experience and is an accomplished presenter at health conferences. He writes a monthly Washington Perspectives column for ACP’s monthly magazine, The ACP Internist, and hosts The ACP Advocate Blog with Bob Doherty, http://blogs.acponline.org/advocacy.

Mr. Doherty is a co-author of the ACP position paper, Achieving a High Performance Health Care System with Universal Access: What the United States Can Learn from Other Countries, published on 1 January 2008 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, ACP’s flagship peer-reviewed journal.

Mr. Doherty represents ACP on the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative, a coalition of consumers, physicians, employers, health plans and other stakeholders created to advocate for reforms to support patient-centered primary care. He serves on the Board of Trustees of URAC, a leading health care accreditation organization, and is past-chair of the Policy Steering Committee for the e-Health Initiative (eHI).

W. David Dotson, Ph.D

Dr. Dotson is a health scientist at the Office of Public Health Genomics (OPHG), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. He holds a doctoral degree in microbiology, as well as a bachelor of science in biochemistry, from North Carolina State University. In addition, he has earned a graduate certificate in public health from the Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Dotson has worked as a laboratory researcher in academic and industrial biotechnology settings, where he specialized in the analysis of gene expression. He has also worked in the pharmaceutical industry as a senior medical writer. His work at OPHG his work has focused on supporting the Evaluation of Genomic Applications in Practice and Prevention (EGAPP)￼ initiative. He contributed to development of the Genomic Applications in Practice and Prevention Network (GAPPNet)￼, and he served as co-facilitator of the GAPPNet Knowledge Synthesis and Dissemination working group. Dr. Dotson is a senior editor for the online publication PLoS Currents: Evidence on Genomic Tests.

Ryan DuBosar

Ryan DuBosar is Senior Editor at the American College of Physicians, where he works on ACP Internist and ACP Hospitalist and specializes in social media and digital publishing efforts for the American College of Physicians. Prior to working in internal medicine, Ryan worked with the topic of ophthalmology, endocrinology and behavioral health, and has 20 years of experience at newspapers, member organizations, dot-coms and hospitals.

Jerome Ecker, M.D.

Dr. Ecker is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and is licensed to practice in North Carolina and Texas. Dr. Ecker completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His ties with Texas include an MD from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Texas School of Law in Austin.

He is a current member of the American Medical Association, American Bar Association, State Bar of Texas, and a Fellow of the American College of Legal Medicine. Dr. Ecker serves as a consultant to the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners in the area of Quality Assurance and Discipline.

A native of San Diego, California, Dr. Ecker spent his college-time summer vacations playing with the Santa Maria Indians Baseball Club in Santa Maria, California. He has been published in the legal arena with articles entitled 'Keys to Effective Litigation' and 'Medicaid at the Crossroads,' and in the medical arena with articles on management of lower GI bleeding and GI complications after lung transplantation. Medical interests include recent advancements in cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal disorders, and neurologic conditions.

Dr. Ecker is the recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award from the University of North Carolina Hospitals.

Evan Falchuk, J.D.

Evan Falchuk is the president and COO of Best Doctors, Inc. where he leads the internal and public strategy. Falchuk joined Best Doctors in 1999 and has held various positions at Best Doctors including general counsel. From 1994 to 1999, Evan was an attorney with Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver and Jacobson in Washington, D.C. in the firm's SEC enforcement practice. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Lehigh University with a degree in History and earned his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Evan has been quoted and appeared in many media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Forbes, Investor's Business Daily, and on Fox's Cavuto, as well as numerous regional and business publications and blogs.

Barbara Feder Ostrov

Barbara Feder Ostrov is deputy editor of ReportingonHealth.org, the website of the USC-California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships. A 15-year veteran of big-city newspapers, Feder Ostrov covered the medical beat for the San Jose Mercury News from 2000-2008. She previously worked at the Palm Beach Post and the Miami Herald, and her work also has been published in the Boston Globe, Ms. Magazine and EverydayHealth.com. She has won awards from the Society for Women's Health Research, the California Newspaper Publishers Association and the Florida Press Club. In 2001, she won a Kaiser Family Foundation grant for international reporting on HIV/AIDS prevention. Feder Ostrov writes the Daily Briefing and Health Journalism blogs for ReportingonHealth.org. She also has taught seminars on patient privacy, covering health reform and source development, for The California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships. Feder Ostrov holds a masters degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Pomona College. She tweets at @ReportingHealth.

Stanley Feld, M.D.

Stanley Feld, M.D. is a founding partner of Endocrine Associates of Dallas, P.A. and was clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern medical school. Dr. Feld is the past president of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) and past president of the American College of Endocrinology (ACE) as well.

Dr. Feld has authored the diabetes guidelines and the thyroid guidelines for AACE and has written over 40 papers.

In addition Dr. Feld served as chairman of the first six thyroid awareness months for the AACE as well as the chairman of two patient first campaigns which increased awareness for intensive treatment of diabetes and the high HGH human growth hormone campaign.

Dr. Feld has been active in several professional organizations. He has served on numerous governing boards and committees since the AACE's inception in 1990. His was also past president of the North Texas affiliate ofthe American Diabetes Association, a fellow of the American College of Physicians and a master of the American College of Endocrinology. He has served on the Texas Osteoporosis Board and the Texas Institute for Health Policy Research.

From his political experience at AACE and his involvement in healthcare policy matters, Dr. Feld has developed an expertise in healthcare policy from the perspective of a practicing physician. In 2006 he began a biweekly blog called *Repairing the Healthcare System*. The blog develops the history of the problems in the health care system as well as solutions from a patient and physician view.

Dr. Feld is a *cum laude* graduate from the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, he completed a clinical and research endocrinology fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Feld is board certified in internal medicine and endocrinology and metabolism.

M. Brian Fennerty, M.D.

M. Brian Fennerty, MD, is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Fennerty received his undergraduate degree at the State University of New York at Albany and his MD from Creighton University in Nebraska. He performed his residency in Internal Medicine at the Naval Hospital in San Diego, California, followed by a fellowship in Gastroenterology at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center.

Dr. Fennerty has published more than 300 papers, book chapters, and abstracts. He is currently the Editor of Journal Watch Gastroenterology, Journal of Medicine and Reviews in Gastroenterological Disorders and the past Associate Editor of American Journal of Gastroenterology and Clinical Perspectives in Gastroenterology. He has also served on the editorial board of a number of professional publications, including Archives of Internal Medicine, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and Evidence-Based Gastroenterology.

Dr. Fennerty is a past member and current consultant of the FDA Advisory Panel on Gastrointestinal and Urological Devices as well as the past chair of the Imaging and Advanced Technology section of the AGA and the Research Committee of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and currently is the Secretary and incoming President-Elect of the ASGE as well as a member of the Gastroenterology Committee for the ABIM.

Barbara Ficarra

Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA is an award-winning journalist, media broadcaster, medical blogger, speaker, health educator, consultant, media trainer and registered nurse. She is founder and editor-in-chief of Healthin30.com. Barbara’s blogs and articles on Healthin30 feature a nurse's perspective and practical trusted advice on personal health focusing on prevention, patient empowerment and healthy living. She also covers a variety of health topics including social media networking, telehealth, the doctor|nurse team and professional development. She is creator, executive producer and host of the Health in 30® radio show, a live 30-minute program that brings listeners the latest health and medical news and information with leading medical experts, and empowers listeners to take charge of their health. [The Health in 30® Radio Show is presently on hiatus.] Barbara is a featured writer at The Huffington Post, freelance writer and guest medical blogger for various health sites. She is on the Editorial Advisory Board and consumer health educator for ShareCare. Barbara is a consultant with Numera Health as Senior Director, Clinical Affairs. Barbara is head nurse (nursing supervisor) at a level 2 trauma center and covers multiple medical and surgical units; including critical care, oncology, cardiology, psychiatric in-patient unit and the women’s and children’s units including the pediatric emergency room. Her clinical experience ranges from oncology to general medicine and surgery. Barbara is a speaker at many professional conferences and her presentations range from patient engagement and empowerment, health care social media networking, and health technology to professional development and media training. She has been quoted as an expert in health care for multiple journals and magazines. Barbara also is experienced in video production as host and executive producer for Web/TV. Barbara is a leading nurse voice in health and her focus is on patient empowerment, patient engagement, health care social media and healthy living. Her professional affiliations include the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ), New York Women in Communications, Microsoft Health Users Group (MSHUG), HIMSS (Healthcare Information Management Systems Society), and American Telemedicine Association (ATA). She is president of Barbara Ficarra Productions, LLC.

Westby Fisher, M.D.

Westby G. Fisher, MD, FACC, is a board-certified internist, cardiologist, and cardiac electrophysiologist practicing at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare in Evanston, Illinois and is an associate professor of medicine at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. He entered the blogosphere in November 2005.

Rich Fogoros, M.D.

Richard N. Fogoros, M.D. (DrRich) is a former professor of medicine, and a longtime practitioner, researcher and author in the fields of cardiology and cardiac electrophysiology. He currently makes his living as a consultant in research and development with biomedical companies, and as a writer.

DrRich practiced and taught clinical cardiology for 20 years, directing cardiac electrophysiology at the University of Pittsburgh, and then at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. He was listed in Best Doctors in America from its inception until he retired from practice. He has authored numerous scientific articles, book chapters, and books.

In addition to guiding the About.com Heart Disease and Cardiology site, DrRich writes The Grand Unification Theory of Healthcare, a website on the American Healthcare system, and The Covert Rationing Blog.

His award-winning book, Fixing American Healthcare - Wonkonians, Gekkonians and the Grand Unification Theory of Healthcare (Publish or Perish DBS, Pittsburgh, 2007) makes the complex American healthcare system completely understandable, and then proposes a uniquely American solution to our growing healthcare crisis.

DrRich received his bachelor's degree from Duke University (1971), and his doctorate in medicine from Ohio State University (1975). He did postgraduate medical training at the University of Pittsburgh and Stanford University, and has received board certification in Internal Medicine, Cardiology, and Electrophysiology.

Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D.

Dr. Foulds obtained a first class honors degree in psychology at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland before training as a Clinical Psychologist at the University of Glasgow. At that time his main research interests were on the psychophysiology and treatment of blood-injury phobia and fainting.

In 1989 he moved to the world-renowned tobacco research group at the Institute of Psychiatry in London and focused his research and clinical work on tobacco addiction. While there he published the first placebo-controlled trials of transdermal nicotine patches in the UK, and also studied the psychological effects of nicotine in smokers and non-smokers.

In 1994 he moved to St George's Hospital Medical School in London where he became the UK's first "Lecturer in Tobacco Addiction". While at St George's, Dr. Foulds was an investigator in the world's first randomized trial to directly compare nicotine patch, gum, inhaler and nasal spray, and also a large randomized trial of brief smoking cessation advice in pregnant women. He was also on the Management Group of the Hungarian Anti-Smoking Campaign (1995-6).

In 1997 he moved to the University of Surrey where he helped run a doctoral training course for Clinical Psychologists and was also a Principal Clinical Psychologist at Broadmoor Hospital, a large maximum security psychiatric hospital for mentally disordered offenders. However, he maintained a strong research interest in tobacco addiction, became technical leader of a World Health Organization project to improve the regulation of tobacco dependence treatment in Europe, and also became Director of Research for the charity, Quit, which ran the largest telephone helpline for smokers in the world at that time.

Dr. Foulds came to the School of Public Health at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) in the United States in 2000 to be the Director of the Tobacco Dependence Program. The program is funded by New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services to train health professionals in New Jersey to treat tobacco dependence, and also runs its own Tobacco Dependence Clinic. In 2004 Dr. Foulds was elected to be Vice President of the Association for the Treatment of Tobacco use and Dependence. Dr. Foulds has therefore been conducting research on tobacco for over 16 years. While most of it has focused on treatment for addicted smokers, his work has also addressed such topics as the measurement of passive smoke exposure, the uptake of smoking in young people, the effects of nicotine on mental performance and the health effects of tobacco products. He has published over 70 articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Scott Fridkin, M.D.

Scott K. Fridkin, MD, is the deputy surveillance branch chief in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infections Diseases, CDC. In this position, he is responsible for oversight and development of antimicrobial surveillance activities for the Division, including those within the National Healthcare Safety Network. Dr. Fridkin has been an epidemic intelligence officer at CDC and trained as an infectious disease fellow at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center and Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.

Dr. Fridkin is an active committee member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and recently served on the Board of Directors of the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America. He is the author or coauthor of more than 80 papers on infectious disease topics related to health care epidemiology and infection control.

Thomas Frieden, M.D.

Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H., became Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) in June 2009. Dr. Frieden has worked to control both communicable and noncommunicable diseases in the United States and around the world. From 1992-1996, he led New York City’s program that rapidly controlled tuberculosis, including reducing cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis by 80 percent. He then worked in India for five years where he assisted with national tuberculosis control efforts. The program in India has treated more than 10 million patients and has saved more than one million lives.

Nicholas Genes, M.D., Ph.D.

Nicholas Genes, MD, PhD, is a resident in the Emergency Medicine program at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. He received a bachelor's degree in science from Brown University, where he first developed his interests in medicine, research, and writing. After college, he enrolled in the MD/PhD program at the University of Massachusetts, pursuing a medical degree while studying chondrocyte mechanotransduction in Dr. Charles Vacanti's laboratory for tissue engineering.

In the course of writing a freelance article, he discovered the world of medical Weblogs, and he has been active in this nascent community ever since. In 2004, he founded "Grand Rounds," a weekly compilation of the best medical blogs, hosted by a different blogger each week. He writes about that project in a weekly column, "Pre-Rounds," for the Medscape Med Students site. He also writes regularly on his own blog, blogborygmi.com, and is a partner in medgadget.com, a blog about emerging medical technologies.

Amy Givler, M.D.

Amy Givler, author of “Making Sense of Medicine” blog, is a family physician practicing in various settings in northeastern Louisiana. She and her husband have three nearly-grown children.

With her 23 years as a family doctor have come insights into how “the world of medicine” works and what contributes to better health. She loves to write and began blogging in June, 2011, working hard to make her words clear and compelling.

After going through successful treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1993, and wanting to help other people with cancer navigate through those difficult early months after diagnosis, she wrote Hope in the Face of Cancer: A Survival Guide for the Journey You Did Not Choose.

Debra Gordon, M.S.

Debra Gordon, MS is an award-winning medical writer with more than 20 years of experience writing about clinical and health policy issues. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a BA in English, and recently received her MS in biomedical writing from the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia.

Debra started her career in journalism, covering medicine for the Virginian Pilot (Norfolk, VA) and Orange County Register (southern California). During that time, she was awarded the prestigious Kaiser Family Foundation Media Fellowship, enabling her to spend a year traveling the country learning about a variety of health policy issues.

Debra has also worked in the managed care industry and as a senior writer/editor for Rodale Inc., a major healthcare publisher based in Emmaus, Pa.

In 2000, Debra became an independent medical communicator. Since then, she has written for numerous companies and outlets on a wide variety of health and medical issues for consumers and professionals. She has also authored, co-authored or contributed to dozens of consumer health books.

She can’t decide if she is more passionate about the clinical side of medicine or the policy side, so she tries to write about both!

David H. Gorski, M.D., Ph.D.

David H. Gorski, MD, PhD, FACS is a surgical oncologist at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute specializing in breast cancer surgery, where he also serves as the American College of Surgeons Committee on Cancer Liaison Physician as well as an Associate Professor of Surgery and member of the faculty of the Graduate Program in Cancer Biology at Wayne State University. An NIH-funded investigator whose primary research interests include tumor angiogenesis and the role of glutamate receptors in promoting the growth and metastasis of breast cancer, Dr. Gorski also runs an active research laboratory at the Karmanos Cancer Institute, where he was recently appointed Program Leader for the Breast Cancer Biology Program.

He first became interested in pseudoscience and "alternative" medicine several years ago, when quite by accident he wandered into the Usenet newsgroup misc.health.alternative and began critically examining the claims there. He has accumulated considerable blogging experience over the last nearly four years under a pseudonym, producing what is consistently ranked as one of the top ten medical blogs, and is happy to drop his pseudonym in order to join such an accomplished group of skeptical doctors to discuss science- and evidence-based medicine (SEBM) for a broad audience. (Finding Dr. Gorski's other, far more infamous blog persona is left as an exercise for the interested reader.) Sadly, although he shares the same last name, Dr. Gorski is not related to Dr. Timothy Gorski, an OB/GYN who is well-known as a skeptic and critic of dubious medical practices.

Jessie Gruman, Ph.D.

Jessie Gruman, Ph.D. is the founder and president of the Center for Advancing Health, an independent Washington-based nonprofit organization funded by the Annenberg Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and other foundations. The Center’s efforts are aimed at increasing patient engagement in the belief that people will not benefit from the health care available to them unless they participate fully and competently in it. Dr. Gruman draws on her own experience of treatment for three cancer diagnoses, surveys, peer-reviewed research and interviews with patients and caregivers as the basis of her work to describe — and advocate for policies and practices to overcome — the challenges people face in finding and good care and getting the most from it.

Dr. Gruman has worked on this same set of concerns in the private sector (AT&T), the public sector (National Institutes of Health) and the voluntary health sector (American Cancer Society). She holds a B.A. from Vassar College and a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Columbia University and is a Professorial Lecturer in the School of Public Health and Health Services at The George Washington University. She serves on the board of trustees of the Center for Medical Technology Policy and the Technical Board of the Milbank Memorial Fund.

Dr. Gruman was honored by Research!America for her leadership in advocacy for health research and received honorary doctorates from Brown University, Carnegie Mellon University, Clark University, Georgetown University, New York University, Northeastern University, Salve Regina University and Tulane University, and the Presidential Medal of The George Washington University. She is a Fellow of the Society for Behavioral Medicine and American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the Association for Psychological Science and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Marta Gwinn, M.D.

Marta Gwinn, MD, MPH, is a medical epidemiologist for CDC’s Office of Public Health Genomics (OPHG). She graduated from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, the University of North Carolina School of Public Health (Biostatistics), and CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service and Preventive Medicine Residency. Marta directed laboratory-based surveillance systems and research studies in CDC’s HIV/AIDS program for 10 years before joining OPHG in 1999 as its second scientific staff member. She has served OPHG in several positions, including Knowledge Integration Team lead and Associate Director for Science. Since retiring from the Commissioned Corps of the US Public Health Service in September 2009, Marta has served as senior consultant to the OPHG Director through a contract with McKing Consulting Corporation.

Harriet Hall, M.D.

Harriet Hall, MD also known as The SkepDoc, is a retired family physician who writes about pseudoscience and questionable medical practices. She received her BA and MD from the University of Washington, did her internship in the Air Force (the second female ever to do so), and was the first female graduate of the Air Force family practice residency at Eglin Air Force Base. During a long career as an Air Force physician, she held various positions from flight surgeon to DBMS (Director of Base Medical Services) and did everything from delivering babies to taking the controls of a B-52. She retired with the rank of Colonel. She recently published Women Aren't Supposed to Fly: The Memoirs of a Female Flight Surgeon.

David Harlow

David Harlow's experience in both the public and private sectors over the past twenty years affords him a unique perspective on legal, policy and business issues facing the health care community. Health care providers, vendors and payors of all shapes and sizes rely on him to help them navigate the maze of regulatory and business issues they face on a daily basis.

David is adept at assisting clients in structuring their business organizations, relationships and processes, as well as approaches to individual transactions, administrative proceedings, negotiations with
regulatory agencies, and legislative strategies, so as to maximize the realization of organizational goals in a highly regulated environment. Over the years, David's clients have included a broad range of health care
providers and organizations: individual practitioners, physician group practices, diagnostic imaging facilities, cancer treatment centers, ambulance services, nursing facilities, other acute and nonacute inpatient
and outpatient facilities, vendors, suppliers and managed care organizations.

David emphasizes the practice of preventive law, anticipating potential flashpoints early in the course of a project, and working to avoid litigation or regulatory enforcement actions whenever possible.

In his consulting practice, David works mostly with physician organizations, hospitals and academic medical centers on internal strategies to optimize physician-hospital relationships. He has also obtained approvals from CMS for a variety of gainsharing and global billing demonstration projects, and advises clients on the use of social media.

His blog, HealthBlawg, is highly regarded in both the legal and health policy blogging worlds.

Fritz Hofheinz, M.D.

Dr. Fritz Hofheinz is vice president and medical director of Best Doctors, where he spearheads Best Doctors' provider relations efforts and continue to build a high-quality physician database. Prior to Best Doctors, Dr. Hofheinz was vice president at UpToDate, an information resource for physicians that was recently acquired by Wolters Kluwer. He led UpToDate's institutional relations team. Prior to UpToDate, Dr. Hofheinz practiced internal medicine. He completed his Internal Medicine residency training at Brigham and Women's hospital in Boston and is a graduate of the Brown University School of Medicine. In addition to his M.D. degree, Dr. Hofheinz holds an M.B.A. from NYU Stern School of Business, and a B.A. from Duke University. He has been published in the Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries.

Lucy Hornstein, M.D.

Lucy E. Hornstein, M.D., has been a solo family physician since 1989. She was born and raised in Washington D.C., which has left her with a deep and abiding apathy for all things political. She earned her B.S. from Brandeis University and her M.D. from the Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, which, she has discovered, is a black hole: No one who comes here ever leaves, no one born here ever leaves. Dr. Hornstein completed her family practice residency at Montgomery Hospital in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and is a three-time re-certified Diplomate of the American Board of Family Practice.

Dr. Hornstein has been blogging since August 2006 when she assumed the persona of "#1 Dinosaur," a nod to the impending extinction of primary care. She is also the author of Declarations of a Dinosaur; Ten Laws I've Learned as a Family Doctor, published in 2009 by Kaplan Publishing.

Dr. Hornstein practices in the Philadelphia suburbs, where she lives with her Darling Spouse, four children off and on, four cats, and a paraplegic Peke.

Happy Hospitalist

I am The Hospitalist medicine. I am a board certified internist who only works in the hospital. No clinic, otherwise my name wouldn't mean anything. It would just be The Internist. And that sounds like a really boring television series. So instead, you can call me The Happy Hospitalist. You can rip on me anytime you like. At some point or another, I'll probably be doing the same to you. Since my blog takes up a bunch of my time, I risk my lovely wife cutting my internet connection with the garden clippers. If one day I stop posting, don't worry, I've been banned in favor of quality time and snuggle sessions. So I guess I win either way.

Iltifat Husain, M.D.

Iltifat Husain is a fourth-year MD/MPH student at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He is receiving his Masters in Public Health from the University of North Carolina School of Public Health before he finishes his last year of medical school.

He has a passion for mobile medical technology and public health. Iltifat is the founder and editor-in-chief of iMedicalApps.com, a site dedicated to providing commentary and reviews of medical technology concentrated on mobile platforms.

With the proliferation of innovative smart devices, he feels mobile medical technology has huge implications for how medical care will be administered and taught. He is especially interested in how this technology can be utilized to improve the physician-patient relationship. Iltifat also has a column on MedPage Today, where he provides commentary on mobile medical applications and electronic medical records.

Iltifat is currently planning on going into emergency medicine upon completion of medical school.

John Jernigan, M.D.

John Jernigan is currently the director of the Office of HAI Prevention Research and Evaluation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP). He is also a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases.

Jernigan attended medical school at Vanderbilt University, where he also completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine, and served as Chief Medical Resident. Following his residency, he spent a year practicing medicine in East Africa. He later returned to the United States to complete his fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of Virginia, where he also earned a Masters Degree in Epidemiology.

He joined the faculty of Emory University in 1994, and became Hospital Epidemiologist at Emory University Hospital in 1995. In Spring 2000, he joined the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion at the CDC, but maintains his faculty appointment in the Emory Division of Infectious Diseases. He has served on the Board of Directors for both the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). He was named the SHEA Investigator awardee in 2005.

His editorial activities have included service on the Editorial Board of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology and Hospital Epidemiology Section Editor for Current Infectious Disease Reports. He has authored/coauthored numerous peer-reviewed publications and textbook chapters dealing with the epidemiology of healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial resistance, and has a particular interest in the epidemiology of drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Alexander Kallen, M.D.

Alexander J. Kallen, MD, MPH, is a medical epidemiologist and outbreak response coordinator in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Kallen is also a volunteer attending physician in both the HIV clinic and infectious disease inpatient service at the Atlanta Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center. He has been with CDC since 2006, when he began serving as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer. Dr. Kallen has published a plethora of peer-reviewed publications and abstracts on various topics including healthcare-associated invasive MRSA infections, multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacilli, infection prevention among hemodialysis patients, and the prevention of bloodstream infections. He is a journal reviewer for many journals including the Annals of Internal Medicine, Emerging Infectious Diseases, and the American Journal of Kidney Disease. Dr. Kallen is a member of the guideline committee for the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA).

Ben Kavoussi, M.S.

Ben Kavoussi, M.S., has a diverse academic background which includes a degree in history and philosophy of science from France and an M.S. in medical informatics. He was interested in acupuncture and "Chinese medicine" during the alternative medicine hype of the 1990s, but turned apostate once he discovered that their fundamental premises are based on astrology. He has authored several articles on the history of acupuncture and is a regular contributor to the Science-Based Medicine blog. He has appeared before the California Department of Consumer Affairs to object to their approval of unscientific practices in the name of alternative medicine.

In his articles, Ben disputes the popular belief that acupuncture as we know it today is derived from an ancient Chinese practice. His research shows that ancient Chinese medical manuscripts actually describe the practices of bloodletting, cauterization, and surgery rather than acupuncture with fine needles. He has also written about the factors that underlie the new-age craze for alternative medicine including postmodernism, orientalism, and countercultural consumerism in healthcare.

Jennifer Kearney-Strouse

Jennifer Kearney-Strouse is the editor of ACP Internist and executive editor of ACP Hospitalist. She has worked in medical publishing for over a decade, most recently overseeing ACP Hospitalist's transformation from a career guide to a monthly newsmagazine. She holds a master's degree in journalism from Temple University.

Ali Khan, M.D.

Rear Admiral Ali S. Khan, MD, MPH, is an Assistant Surgeon General and began leading the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR) in August 2010. Most recently, he was the Deputy Director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID) at CDC. Dr. Khan joined CDC and the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps in 1991 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer. Over the past decade, he has responded to and led numerous high profile domestic and international public health emergencies including hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, monkeypox, avian influenza, Rift Valley fever, severe acute respiratory syndrome [SARS], the Asian Tsunami, and the initial public health response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Dr. Khan’s professional career has focused on bioterrorism, global health, and emerging infectious diseases. He served as one of the main architects of CDC’s public health bioterrorism preparedness program which upgraded local, state, and national public health systems to detect and rapidly respond to bioterrorism. He designed CDC’s joint global field epidemiology and laboratory training program. Dr. Khan was an integral part of the design and implementation of the President’s Malaria Initiative and has been engaged in guinea worm and polio eradication. He also proposed BioPHusion as a new public health initiative to improve knowledge exchange for all public health practitioners.

Muin J. Khoury, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Khoury is the founding director of the CDC’s Office of Public Health Genomics. The Office was formed in 1997 to assess the impact of advances in human genetics and the Human Genome Project on public health and disease prevention. CDC’s Office of Public Health Genomics serves as the national focus for integrating genomics into public health research and programs for disease prevention and health promotion. Dr. Khoury has developed a number of successful ongoing national and international initiatives to translate advances in genomics and related technologies to recommendations and actions that improve health and prevent disease throughout the life stages. Examples of collaborative initiatives that Dr. Khoury started are the Human Genome Epidemiology Network (HuGENet), the Evaluation of Genomic Applications in Practice and Prevention initiative (EGAPP™￼), and the Genomic Applications in Practice and Prevention Network (GAPPNet™). Since 2007, Dr. Khoury has served NCI as a senior consultant in Public Health Genomics. He has helped integrate public health genomics research￼ into the Division’s research portfolio, such as comparative effectiveness research in genomics and personalized medicine.

Dr. Khoury received his B.S. degree in Biology/Chemistry from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon and his medical degree and Pediatrics training from the same institution. He received a Ph.D. in Human Genetics/Genetic Epidemiology and training in Medical Genetics from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Khoury is board certified in Medical Genetics.

Dr. Khoury received the Public Health Service Special Recognition Award in 1990 for his outstanding contribution to the scientific literature in the areas of birth defects and genetic epidemiology. In 1994, he received the Arthur Fleming Award for outstanding government service. In 1998, Dr. Khoury was credentialed for the Senior Biomedical Research Service for outstanding contributions to public health. In 2000, he received the CDC Research Honor Award for outstanding national leadership in genetics and public health. In 2005, he received the National Cancer Institute visiting scholar award for leadership and vision in genetic epidemiology and public health.

Dr. Khoury has published extensively in the fields of genetic epidemiology and public health genetics. He has over 400 scientific publications including articles, books and book chapters. In 1993, he published a textbook entitled: “Fundamentals of Genetic Epidemiology”. In 2000, he was the lead editor for the book entitled: “Genetics and Public Health in the 21st Century: Using Genetic Information to Improve Health and Prevent Disease”. His 2004 book entitled “Human Genome Epidemiology” illustrates the applications of epidemiologic methods and approaches to the continuum of genomic information from research to practice. In 2010, he published a completely updated second edition of ”Human Genome Epidemiology”.

Dr. Khoury is a member of many professional societies and serves on the editorial boards of several journals. He is a frequent keynote speaker at many academic institutions, professional organization meetings, as well as state, regional, national and international conferences. He also serves on several scientific, public health, and health policy national and international committees. He is an adjunct professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and Environmental and Occupational Health at Emory University Rollins School of Public Health and an associate in the Department of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Michael Kirsch, M.D.

Michael Kirsch, M.D., is a practicing gastroenterologist and writer. He was raised and educated on the East Coast, and is now raising and educating his own children in the Midwest, along with his physician wife, Alla. Moving to the Midwest provided an enlightening life lesson that civilization is not restricted to the Northeast region of the country, as East Coast inhabitants believe.

When he is not performing colonoscopies, he is reading and writing. He avidly follows current events and tries to expose himself to all points of view on the issues of the day. He enjoys studying American history and also reads about religion, medical ethics, and politics. He has visited Civil War historical sites throughout the country, including an unforgettable afternoon when he visited Richard Mudd,, M.D., the grandson of the physician who attended to John Wilkes Booth, who was injured at Ford’s Theater after committing his infamous act.

Dr. Kirsch has published nearly 150 articles and essays that have appeared in newspapers, magazines, and professional medical journals. In January 2009 he began writing the MD Whistleblower blog, where each week he gives readers a “peek behind the medical curtain,” discussing controversial and topical medical issues, seasoned with a dash of sarcasm and splash of humor. This blog is his passion and he pledges to give his readers a true insider’s view of the medical profession.

Mary teaches a course entitled “Writing Health Stories for the Public” to medical faculty at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and taught science and medical writing for 14 years in a graduate writing program at Johns Hopkins, where she was the science-medical writing advisor.

Mary was a journalism fellow in Advanced Studies in Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health and was Freedom Forum Medical Journalist-in-Residence at Ithaca College in New York.

Mary served on the board of the National Association of Science Writers (NASW) for 10 years and helped create the NASW annual professional workshops, which she co-chaired in their first two years. She is a former president of the D.C. Science Writers Association and sits on the managing committee for the Science Journalism Awards of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Mary is a winner of the NASW “Science in Society Award” and is a member of NASW, the Association of Health Care Journalists, and The Authors Guild.

Anthony Komaroff, M.D.

Anthony Komaroff, M.D. is the Steven P. Simcox/Patrick A. Clifford/James H. Higby Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Senior Physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and Editor in Chief of Harvard Health Publications. He was Director of the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care at Brigham and Women's Hospital for 15 years and is the Founding Editor of Journal Watch, a summary medical information newsletter for physicians published by the Massachusetts Medical Society and the New England Journal of Medicine.

A practicing physician, Dr. Komaroff also teaches clinical medicine as well as clinical research methods. He has served as an advisory board member for the Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and for the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He is the author of over 200 journal articles and book chapters and of one book. In recognition of his accomplishments, Dr. Komaroff has been elected as a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Disclosures: Dr. Komaroff receives research support from S. Sydney Deyoung Foundation and is a stock shareholder in CytonomeST, LLC.
Blog: Harvard Health Blog

Timothy Kreider

Timothy Kreider is an MD/PhD student at a public university in the northeast US. He never paid much mind to pseudoscience until discovering The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe and other podcasts that now keep him company during long nights in lab. He practices his skeptical analysis on extracurricular lectures organized by a student interest group for integrative medicine on campus.

As a graduate student, Tim is investigating immune mechanisms in a mouse model of gastrointestinal helminth infection. As a medical student, he has no idea what specialty to pursue and would love advice. He loves to teach math and science and hopes to pursue a career in medical academia.

David Kroll, Ph.D.

David J Kroll, PhD, is a biomedical educator and natural products cancer pharmacologist focusing on the discovery of novel compounds from diverse natural sources, including botanical dietary supplements. He is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) in their Biomanufacturing Research Institute and Technology Enterprise (BRITE). Dr. Kroll is also guest faculty and graduate advisory board member for the MS program in Science and Medical Journalism at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Kroll holds a BS in Toxicology and a PhD in Pharmacology & Therapeutics. He originally launched his NIH- and American Cancer Society-supported independent academic research program studying the mechanisms of chemotherapeutic drug resistance. As more than half of anticancer drugs are derived from plants, microbes, or marine organisms, Dr. Kroll has always held high regard for nature as a source of chemical diversity in the discovery of drugs for a variety of therapeutic areas and worked at one point with the co-discoverers of Taxol (paclitaxel). In 1995, his historical curiosity and role as a pharmacology professor for pharmacy, medical, and nursing students led him to develop educational modules on the truth and fiction behind herbal remedies and non-botanical supplements. Demand for this objective information extended to the public and Dr. Kroll became a widely sought expert source on supplement quality and misinformation for the print and broadcast media.

Dr. Kroll has grown increasingly dismayed at the bastardization of his research field by an industry that often distorts and misappropriates the peer-reviewed natural products research literature in product marketing. His professional relationships with academic centers for integrative medicine have left him largely discouraged that such lofty institutions also promote questionable approaches in the name of medicine, yet he is encouraged by a handful of investigators in a few centers that truly subscribe to science-based medicine in the rigorous evaluation of therapeutic natural products.

Dr. Kroll is currently funded by the NIH National Cancer Institute to identify and characterize anticancer and chemopreventive pure compounds from milk thistle (Silybum marianum). He also serves on the NCI's Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine Physician's Data Query Editorial Board.

Matthew Kuehnert, M.D.

As Director of the Office of Blood, Organ, and Other Tissue Safety, Dr. Kuehnert coordinates investigations, surveillance, and policy at CDC for the improvement of transfusion and transplant outcomes and initiation of public health interventions to ensure patient safety in this area, including development of biovigilance in the United States.

Dr. Kuehnert completed his undergraduate education at the University of California at San Diego and received his medical degree from Columbia University’s College of Physicians & Surgeons. He trained in Internal Medicine at Stanford University and the University of California at San Francisco, and in Infectious Diseases at Emory University. Before his present position, Dr. Kuehnert was the Assistant Director for Blood Safety in the Division of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases, and started at CDC in 1996 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer in the Hospital Infections Program.

Dr. Kuehnert has been a vital contributor in the understanding and prevention of transfusion- and transplant-transmitted infections. He is a recognized expert on many aspects of patient safety over the course of his career, including blood safety, healthcare preparedness, antimicrobial resistance, and emerging infections, having authored over 50 publications in the peer-reviewed literature.

Jon LaPook, M.D.

Dr. LaPook is the medical correspondent for the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric and a guest blogger for the Huffington Post. He is a board-certified physician in internal medicine and gastroenterology and an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center/New York-Presbyterian Hospital. He graduated cum laude from Yale University with a bachelor's degree in biology and with honors from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons with an M.D. He has done extensive work in the field of medical computing. Dr. LaPook lives in New York City with his wife and two sons.

Glenn Laffel, M.D., Ph.D.

Glenn Laffel, M.D., Ph.D., has been in health care for 30 years. He completed an internal medicine residency and cardiovascular disease fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, an affiliate with Harvard Medical School. He also earned a Ph.D. in Health Policy and Management from MIT.

Most recently he served as Senior Vice President for Clinical Affairs at Practice Fusion, which offers a SaaS-based electronic heath record for free to providers, particularly those in solo and small group practices. In that capacity he helped the company grow from a very early stage to one that has been valued in excess of $20 million.

Before joining Practice Fusion, Dr. Laffel founded Clinical Solutions, a Menlo Park-based company that produced customizable algorithmic content for use by nurses in triage call centers. Clinical Solutions was acquired in 2006 by CAS Services (UK) after its algorithms became the most widely used in the world.

Before starting Clinical Solutions, Dr. Laffel was an attending physician in the heart transplantation program at the Brigham, the founding editor of the peer-reviewed journal, Quality Management in Health Care, and a consultant to providers in several countries on matters of organizational performance and the quality of care.

Dr. Laffel enjoys travel, photography, modern art, working out, and jazz. He voted for George McGovern and notably has survived for 30 years as a Yankee fan while living in enemy territory.

Rob Lamberts, M.D.

Dr. Rob is a primary care physician in the Southeastern U.S. He likes to talk about himself in the third-person. He has not been to North Dakota. A married father of four, Dr. Rob is a gadget guy and loves playing the guitar. His passions include healthcare reform and computerizing the medical office, and blogging. "I firmly believe that life is always full of happy things and hard things. The key is to grab both of them at the same time and understand that both of them are important parts of life. I work as a physician and so face some very hard situations regularly."

Edwin Leap, M.D.

Edwin Leap, MD, is a board certified emergency physician, practicing in a medium-sized emergency department in the South. He graduated from Marshall University and the West Virginia University School of Medicine. He completed his emergency medicine residency at Methodist Hospital of Indiana in 1993.

He has been married to his wife, Jan, for 16 years; they have four children whom they home-school. Edwin writes twice-monthly columns for the Greenville News. He is also the award-winning author of a monthly column in Emergency Medicine News. His columns have been featured by Medical Economics, Focus on the Family Magazine, WorldNet Daily and other publications. Relatively new to blogging, he has developed a solid, growing audience. Edwin has also spent years a sub-contracting consultant for the DoD, lecturing on the medical consequences of weapons of mass destruction.

However, his current writing focus is not so much on the science of medicine, but the culture of medicine. He is interested in being seen as a ‘physician advocate,’ but is equally interested in teaching the importance of compassion for all patients. He also writes about the intersection of religious faith and medical practice. A non-academic physician, Edwin considers himself a voice for practicing physicians who find themselves frequently at odds with burdensome rules and unrealistic regulations.

Edwin also uses humor in much of what he writes as he tries to illustrate the pre-eminence of the American South, the importance of marriage and family, and the intellectual inconsistencies that plague much of modern life.

Hsien-Hsien Lei, Ph.D.

Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei is a genetic epidemiologist and science writer. She received her Ph.D. in epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where she was the recipient of a National Institutes of Health Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology Training Grant. Dr. Lei completed her postdoctoral training at National Taiwan University Hospital. She received her BA with honors from Stanford University in human biology, specializing in methods of disease prevention.

Previously, Dr. Lei conducted research on the genetic epidemiology of kidney disease and type 2 diabetes. She has published in leading peer reviewed journals, presented at international conferences, and helped lead multi-center population-based studies. Her writing has been recognized by the American Society of Nephrology, Forbes.com, Duke GenomeLIFE Magazine, and the Los Angeles Times, among others.

Dr. Lei publishes EyeOnDNA.com, a leading genetics weblog tracking the genome revolution and the role of DNA in society. She is particularly interested in making genetics comprehensible to scientists and non-scientists alike. Dr. Lei is also co-founder of The DNA Network, a collection of weblogs about genetics, genomics, and DNA. At DNA Direct, Dr. Lei helps bring genetic technology out of the lab and into our everyday lives.

Kenny Lin, M.D.

Kenny Lin, M.D. is a board-certified Family Physician practicing in the Washington, DC area. He is an Associate Editor of the journal American Family Physician and the online clinical resource Essential Evidence Plus and teaches family and preventive medicine at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Dr. Lin obtained his medical degree from the New York University School of Medicine and completed a residency in Family Medicine at Lancaster General Hospital (PA). He is a member of the Maryland Academy of Family Physicians and a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. From 2006 to 2010, Dr. Lin served as a Medical Officer for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force program at the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, where he performed research to support the USPSTF’s recommendation statements on screening for COPD, hepatitis B, testicular cancer, and prostate cancer, among others. He posts regularly to his personal blog, Common Sense Family Doctor, andU.S. News and World Report’s Healthcare Headaches. Dr. Lin has lectured widely on the benefits and harms of cancer screening, medical writing and publication, and the uses of social media in health care and policy.

Disclosures: Paid for providing independent editorial services to the American Academy of Family Physicians (Associate Editor, American Family Physician and Editorial Board Member, Family Practice Management) and John Wiley and Sons (Associate Editor, Essential Evidence Plus).
He is also a paid contributor to UpToDate, published by Wolters Kluwer Health.
Blog: Common Sense Family Doctor

Peter Lipson, M.D.

Peter A. Lipson, MD is a practicing internist and teaching physician in Southeast Michigan. After graduating from Rush Medical College in Chicago, he completed his Internal Medicine residency at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. During his intern year, he led a medical mission to hurricane-ravaged Honduras and managed to have it count toward elective time rather than vacation.

After finishing his residency, he moved back to the Detroit area taking a position as an academic hospitalist. When he found he did not enjoy sharing a call room with various arthropods, especially some known as "sewer flies", he went into private practice at a large community-based teaching hospital.

He currently maintains a private practice, and serves as a teaching physician at the same large community hospital.

Because he isn't busy enough, he is an avid reader. He is also quite used to patients, friends, and family members quizzing him about dubious medical practices. The marvel known as "the internet" has made these practices widely available to credulous consumers, which makes Dr. Lipson's job harder. As his knowledge of non-science-based medical practices grew, he found that simply educating his own patients, students, and residents wasn't enough, so he began to blog, first at White Coat Underground, then at denialism blog, and now at the reborn White Coat Underground at ScienceBlogs.

A primary goal of his writing is to illuminate the differences between science-based medicine and everything else. His perspective as a primary care physician and his daily interaction with real patients gives him what he hopes is special insight into the current "De-lightenment" in medicine. As new media evolve, pseudo-scientific, deceptive, and immoral health practices become more and more available to patients, making his job all that much more difficult—and all that much more interesting.

Davis Liu, M.D.

Davis Liu, M.D., is a practicing board-certified family physician with the Permanente Medical Group in Northern California since 2000, and the author of Stay Healthy, Live Longer, Spend Wisely - Making Intelligent Choices in America's Healthcare System.

His comments have appeared in Fortune, Smart Money, Remedy, Real and Simple, and the NY Times. He has penned opinion pieces that have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Sacramento Bee.

As the only physician in his family, many times his family has benefited from his medical knowledge. As an insider, he increased the chances that they would have good outcomes. This coupled with his business school training gives him a unique perspective not only on the challenges individuals have to stay healthy but also the financial implications to get there.

Until the healthcare system is reformed, individuals must take charge and educated themselves to make the right choices to stay healthy, live longer,and spend wisely. Otherwise, they give up this responsibility to others which may result in bad outcomes resulting in poorer health, less time and money. He is passionate that everyone has access to the knowledge he has acquired to get the best care for their family and friends.

Frederic Llordachs, M.D.

MD with MBA, specialized in Healthcare Management and Marketing. Direct experience with healthcare insurance, and healthcare management, and interested in venture capital. Also involved in early-stage start-ups, like Doctoralia, the global platform for healthcare search, and also other pre-seed projects like Lexpertia, the search engine for lawyers in Spain.

Ann MacDonald

Ann MacDonald is editor of the Harvard Mental Health Letter. Prior to working at Harvard, she ran her own medical communications business. Previously she served as eastern regional director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

She became interested in mental health after her brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia in the late 1980s. One of the reasons she enjoys working on the Harvard Mental Health Letter is that it enables her to write about psychiatric disorders in a comprehensive way that places new discoveries in context and explores the nuances of diagnosis, treatment, and recovery.

Ann earned a B.A. in politics and women’s studies at Brandeis University.

John Mandrola, M.D.

John Mandrola, M.D., F.A.C.C., is a practicing cardiac electrophysiologist in Louisville, Kentucky. He graduated from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine in 1989. He was trained in Internal Medicine, Cardiology and Cardiac Electrophysiology at Indiana University, finishing in 1996. He earned the Charles Kenner Memorial Award for most outstanding fellow in 1996.

Dr Mandrola is board certified in both Cardiology and Cardiac Electrophysiology. His clinical area of interest is catheter ablation, including an extensive experience in ablation of atrial fibrillation. He has implanted more than 5,000 pacemakers and internal defibrillators.

His administrative experience includes past service as Internal Medicine Chairman, Medical Staff President, and Chairman of the Medical Executive Committee at Baptist Hospital East. He served as a voting member of the Board of Directors of Baptist Hospital East from 2006 to 2008.

Dr Mandrola is a lifelong exerciser. Presently, in addition to being a clinician, father of teenagers and husband, he is also a category 2 masters bike racer, competing in both road racing and cyclocross. Before bike racing, he was a runner (3:08 marathon), triathlete, and cross country coach.

Dr Mandrola is a vigorous advocate for education and healthy living. He believes that success stems from being a “master of the obvious.”

Julio Mayol, M.D., Ph.D.

Julio M. Mayol MD, PhD, graduated with honor from Universidad Complutense de Madrid Medical School in 1988. He received his training in General Surgery at Hospital Clinico San Carlos and Beth Israel Hospital, taking further postgraduate training as research fellow in Surgery at Harvard Medical School. Currently, he he has an appointment as Professor of Surgery at Universidad Complutense de Madrid Medical School. He serves as Chief Innovation Officer and Chief of the Division of Colorectal Surgery at Hospital Clinico San Carlos. He is a member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Medicine and European Expert on Cell Therapy at European Medicines Agency.

Kim McAllister, R.N.

Kim McAllister is a registered nurse and the author of Emergiblog, vignettes about her life and times as an emergency department nurse.

Kim was born in the San Francisco Bay Area, a graduate of the Ohlone College School of Nursing, where she earned her associate's degree in 1978. With thirty years of nursing experience, she has worked in medical/surgical, coronary care, intensive care, telemetry, psychiatry and pediatrics; she has worked as a staff nurse in emergency departments for the last 17 years. Two years ago, Kim decided to further her nursing education and is currently a student in the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay BSN-LINC program and is on course to graduate in 2010 with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Her goal is a PhD in nursing with a focus on nursing education and research.

Three years ago, Kim decided to put her love of writing to use and "Emergiblog" was born. Since then, she has consistently blogged about nursing and nurse-related issues from her unique perspective. She is the administrator of the blog carnival, "Change of Shift", a bi-weekly compilation of the best of the nursing blogosphere. She is a frequent contributor to "Grand Rounds", the weekly medical blogosphere carnival.

Emergiblog has been named by Dr. Manny Alvarez at FoxNews.com as one of the top ten medical blogs and has been mentioned in the L.A. Times.com in a list of influential blogs. Kim's work has been published in "Advance for Nurses" a regional nursing magazine where she serves on the Regional Editorial Advisory Board. Kim has given speeches about her passion for blogging and its place in today's health environment to companies looking to find a place in the blogosphere.

Bertalan Mesko, M.D.

Bertalan Meskó, M.D. is the managing director and founder of Webicina.com LLC, a web 2.0 guidance service for patients and medical professionals. He started PhD training in the field of personalized genetics in 2009.

He is the author of the medical blog, Scienceroll.com which won the Blogger's Choice Award in Best Health Blog category in 2007; the Best Medical Technologies/Informatics Category in Medgadget's Weblog Awards in 2008 and also the Edublog Awards.

Meskó has given presentations at several conferences and prestigious events such as the University of Yale; the centre of World Health Organization, the Medicine 2.0 Congress in Toronto or the Zorg 2.0 event in Nijmegen, The Netherlands among others. He is a member of the organizing committee of the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality conference taking place in Long Beach, CA. He has been mentioned in journals such as Nature Medicine, British Medical Journal, Wired Science or The Cell.

Michael Craig Miller, M.D.

Michael Craig Miller, M.D. is Editor in Chief of the Harvard Mental Health Letter. Published monthly, the Harvard Mental Health Letter is read widely by professionals and non-professionals alike. Dr. Miller's writing on mental health topics has appeared in Newsweek, the Boston Globe, and in syndicated articles that appear in newspapers nationwide. He has appeared as a commentator on the Today Show, The Martha Stewart Show, ABC News, CNN, and NPR and for media outlets in the Boston area. In practice for more than 30 years, Dr. Miller is a member of the faculty of Harvard Medical School and on the medical staff at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Sergio Minué, M.D.

General Practitioner (GP). Management professor at Andalusian School of Public Health (Escuela Andaluza de Salud Pública, EASP) since July, 2000.
In the last eleven years Dr. Minué has been involved in several projects related to education, investigation and consulting both at national and international level. He has worked in projects for Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Morocco and El Salvador, and collaborated with Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in other actions.

At the present he is Director of the Expertise in Healthcare Management program at University of Granada and coordinates healthcare management module in European Master 'Erasmus Mundus' Europubhealth.

Served as Director of Medical Care Management Department at EASP from February 2009 to May 2010.
Worked as Teaching and Investigation Director at EASP from 2003 to 2007.

From 1993 to 2000 held different management positions at Insalud (now-defunct Spanish national healthcare authority): Medical Director of Primary Care Team at Barajas (1991-1993), Assistant Medical Director of Primary Care of Madrid's Area 4 (1993-1994), Medical Director of the same regional area (1994-1996) and finally Medical Director of Primary Care for Madrid's Area 2 (1996-2000).
Quality Pilot in European Master 'Erasmus Mundus' Europubhealth (2006-2010). During that time he coordinated Quality Committee of Virtual Campus of Public Health in Latin America organized by PAHO.

Member of Patient Safety groups at Cochrane and Spanish Primary Care Association (Semfyc). At Semfyc he is also member of the Knowledge Management group and coordinates Project ARA, focused on MD re-certification.

Member of Internet and Healthcare investigation group at EASP, he is currently working in several investigation projects on how doctors can use new technologies, social media and Web 2.0. He is also involved in projects related to best practices in teaching, safety, clinical decision-making and Primary Care. He is the leading author of an ongoing investigation on decision-making and mistakes in diagnosis. Reviewer for 'Gaceta Sanitaria' magazine. Participates in expert groups in Spain, Europe and the Americas.

He authored articles published in scientific journals both in Spain and abroad, and is a frequent lecturer and speaker in scientific congresses all over the world and is still actively writing and publishing in his field of expertise. He writes in two personal blogs ('El Gerente de Mediado' and 'La Cara Ve') and is a regular contributor to other healthcare blogs and Diario Médico.

Kerri Morrone Sparling

Kerri Morrone Sparling is the author and creator of Six Until Me, one of the first and most widely-read diabetes patient blogs. Voted “Best Patient Blog” in 2008, SUM has been a reliable source of diabetes lifestyle information in the blogosphere. Six Until Me already has a strong and loyal readership comprised of people with diabetes, the caregivers of diabetics, medical professionals, and those living with chronic illness, and has been spotlighted on WebMD, The Lancet, AOL, US News and World Report, and CNBC. She has contributed to many diabetes-related websites and publications, and is a passionate advocate for diabetes awareness.

With a BA in English from the University of Rhode Island and over two decades of experience living with type 1 diabetes, Kerri earned a position as Editor and Community Leader for the diabetes-media company, dLife. In addition, her work has appeared in her dLife column, Generation D, her diaTribe column "SUM Musings," and she has guest-blogged on several well-known medical and social networking sites. An expert in social media and its influence on patients, Kerri has spoken at new media conferences and has been a repeat featured guest on dLifeTV.

Recently married and looking forward to starting a family, Kerri and her husband Chris reside in Connecticut.

Dave Munger

Dave Munger is a writer living in Davidson, North Carolina. He is a columnist for SEEDMAGAZINE.COM and the editor of ResearchBlogging.org. His latest project, The Daily Monthly, covers a single topic per month—often health related.

For five years, Dave and his wife Greta maintained the psychology blog Cognitive Daily, which was chosen three times to appear in the Open Laboratory, an annual anthology of the top science blog posts on the web. It has appeared on numerous top ten lists including ranking seventh on Nature’s 50 popular science blogs list.

Dave is the author of several college writing textbooks, including Researching Online and The Pocket Reader. He has also been a textbook designer and editor.

Miguel Ángel Máñez

Miguel Ángel Máñez is an economist and currently holds the position of Finance and Human Resources Assistant Manager of the Health Department of Alicante-Sant Joan d’Alacant in Alicante, Spain. He is also the Coordinator of the '2.0 Office' for Valencia’s regional health authority, responsible for the implementation of Web 2.0 tools aimed at patients and healthcare professionals. He is the author of a well-known blog in Spain about healthcare management called 'Salud con Cosas'. He has taken an active part in courses and seminars about Internet and healthcare, marketing, and strategies of healthcare management. He is the author of several articles on healthcare and Web 2.0.

American Journal of Neuroradiology

The American Journal of Neuroradiology (AJNR) is a monthly medical journal published by the American Society of Neuroradiology (ASNR), a professional membership society comprised of 3,000 physicians specializing in the field of neuroradiology. The ASNR was founded on April 19, 1962 in New York and incorporated in the State of New York on February 1, 1965. An article by Past President Michael Huckman, M.D. details ASNR's history.

Neuroradiology is the clinical subspecialty concerned with the diagnostic radiology of diseases of the central nervous system, brain, head and neck through the use of X-ray, MRI, CT scan, and angiography. It is practiced in hospital settings, academic/educational institutions, and private practice.

Senior membership in the ASNR is open to board-certified radiologists residing in the Western Hemisphere with two years formal training or one year of formal training and a second year of 100 percent neuroradiology experience, both under supervision of a senior member in the institution with an approved radiology residency program. Active members must devote approximately one-half or more of their professional practice to neuroradiology.

The ASNR is headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois, a near-western suburb of Chicago. The ASNR is comprised of 17 full-time professional staff members.

Steve Novella, M.D.

Founder and currently Executive Editor of Science-Based Medicine Steven Novella, MD is an academic clinical neurologist at the Yale University School of Medicine. He is also the president and co-founder of the New England Skeptical Society, the host and producer of the popular weekly science podcast, The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, and the author of the NeuroLogicaBlog, a daily blog that covers news and issues in neuroscience, but also general science, scientific skepticism, philosophy of science, critical thinking, and the intersection of science with the media and society. Dr. Novella also contributes every Sunday to The Rogues Gallery, the official blog of the SGU.

Shantanu Nundy, M.D.

Shantanu Nundy, M.D., is a physician at the University of Chicago Medical Center where he maintains a primary care practice and cares for patients on the hospital wards. Dr. Nundy is the author of Stay Healthy At Every Age: What Your Doctor Wants You to Know (Johns Hopkins University Press, April 2010, (www.stayhealthyateveryage.com). He also writes regularly about prevention and healthcare delivery through his blog, BeyondApples.org.

Dr. Nundy has an interest in prevention, public health, and research. As an undergraduate, he founded a medical clinic in rural India (www.ourdisha.org). During medical school, he served at the World Health Organization in Geneva on efforts to eradicate hospital-acquired infections and improve surgical safety. In 2008, he worked briefly with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigating childhood diarrhea in Lima, Peru.

Dr. Nundy’s primary research interests are in healthcare quality and safety and healthcare delivery. He has done research with the MIT Economics Department, the Johns Hopkins Quality and Safety Research Group, and the Division of General Medicine at the University of Chicago. Currently Dr. Nundy is studying the use of mobile phone technology to improve diabetes care and of Internet-based tools to increase the delivery of preventive health services.

Dr. Nundy received his undergraduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute for Technology and his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He lives with his wife in Chicago.

Gene Ostrovsky

Gene Ostrovsky is a co-founder and senior editor of Medgadget.com, an online medical technology journal. For over four years at Medgadget, Gene and his brother Dr. Michael Ostrovsky, have consistently covered the latest advancements in the science of medicine, focusing on devices, nanotechnology, and medical informatics. Gene has been central to all aspects of Medgadget from editorial research to organizing the annual Medical Blog Awards. Over the years Medgadget has become one of the most popular medical blogs, with a dedicated audience hungry to read about advancements in the most vibrant field of research.

Gene Ostrovsky received his bachelor's in Computer Science from The University of Chicago, and later did master's work in computer visualization at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Gene's interests include physics, music, public policy, and photography.

Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation

The mission of the Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation is to help prevent medical errors by ensuring that patients and families have the KNOWLEDGE they need to promote a safe hospital experience for their loved ones, and to support innovative advancements in patient safety. Our greatest hope is that families, patients, and caregivers will work together as a TEAM to improve safety in our hospitals.

The goal of the Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation is to open the pathways of communication between patients, doctors, nurses, and hospitals in an effort to enhance hospital safety and prevent adverse events. It is important to empower the patient and family with knowledge about the type of care they will receive in order to make informed healthcare decisions.

Going to the hospital can be a terrifying experience, and it is easy to get overwhelmed. Patients trust that the nurses, doctors, and hospitals are properly prepared to deal with all situations. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. It is vital to create awareness and literature that is accessible and easy for the patient to understand. It takes everyone working together as a team to ensure that patients, families, doctors, nurses, and hospitals are safe, informed, and protected.

Joseph Perz, Dr.P.H.

Dr. Joseph Perz is the Prevention Team Leader for the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Perz entered the field of public health after training as an engineer and environmental scientist. After receiving a Doctorate in Public Health from Columbia University, he served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer with the Tennessee Department of Health. During his 11 years with the CDC, Dr. Perz has guided dozens of outbreak investigations and special studies, drawing attention to the needs for injection safety and other basic infection control. He has authored or co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, MMWR articles and book chapters. His team’s activities are currently focused on interagency collaboration, support to health departments, and partnership efforts to expand prevention activities to ambulatory and long term care settings.

Kevin Pho, M.D.

Kevin Pho, MD, is a board-certified internal medicine physician based in Nashua, NH. In his blog, Kevin, M.D., you will find opinion and commentary on current medical issues by a practicing primary care physician. "People not involved in healthcare have no idea what goes on ‘behind the curtain.' The death of primary care, defensive medicine, malpractice, reimbursement, Big Pharma, and healthcare reform are a small sample of issues that doctors face daily." Kevin, M.D. has been featured or mentioned in The Wall Street Journal, British Medical Journal, The Detroit Free Press, and American Medical News. Dr. Pho also was interviewed recently in a segment on defensive medicine on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.

Peggy Polaneczky, M.D.

Margaret (Peggy) Polaneczky, MD (FACOG) is a board certified obstetrician-gynecologist and Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Weill Medical College – New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. She practices office gynecology, with particular interest in family planning, menopause, adolescent gynecology, menstrual and vulvo-vaginal disorders and the gynecologic care of women with breast cancer. Her research has focused on contraceptive acceptance and compliance, sexually transmitted disease screening and premenstrual disorders. She has written numerous book chapters and review articles on contraception, and chairs the Medical Advisory Committee of Planned Parenthood of New York City.

Dr Polaneczky writes the “The Blog that Ate Manhattan”, a blog that combines her love of food, medicine and New York City and has been named as one of the top 100 medical blogs and a “must-read” blog for women. Her proudest blog moment to date is a toss-up between being featured in the ACOG newsletter and having the New York Times link to her recipe for potato latkes.

Terri Polick, R.N.

Terri Polick, R.N. is a psychiatric nurse and freelance writer living in Maryland. She is also the Executive Vice President of the National Nursing Network Organization. The NNNO is a grassroots organization that is dedicated to the establishment of the Office of the National Nurse. Terri is a frequent contributor to Nursing Spectrum Magazine, and her articles have also appeared in Advance For Nurses, Medscape, The Maryland Nurse, and Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association. Readers also know Terri as Mother Jones, R.N., the author of Nurse Ratched's Place. Terri's stories give readers an insider view of the mental health system. Terri is also the author of a weekly nursing advice column at Nursing Jobs.org.

Terri graduated from Lake View Medical Center School of Nursing in Danville, Illinois in 1978 and has worked in many specialties throughout her extensive nursing career. Terri has always helped the people of her community through public service. She has volunteered her time to help the homeless at St. Jude Catholic Worker House in Champaign, Illinois, and she currently serves her community by giving testimony before the Maryland State Assembly about nursing and health care issues.

Barbara Reynolds, Ph.D.

Barbara Reynolds, Ph.D., is Crises Communication Senior Advisor in the Office of the Director at CDC. Dr. Reynolds’ communication expertise has been used in the planning or response to pandemic influenza, vaccine safety, emerging disease outbreaks, and bioterrorism. Internationally, she has acted as a crisis communication consultant on health issues for France, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, former Soviet Union nations, NATO, and the World Health Organization. She is the author of Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication and CDC’s Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication course, which is now taught in universities and other settings nationwide and internationally.

Allen Roberts, M.D.

Allen Roberts, MD, MS, FACEP, FAAEM was born and raised in Odessa, Texas. Graduating from University of Texas at the Permian Basin with a BS and MS in Life Sciences (86, 89), he then attended Texas Tech School of Medicine in Lubbock (93) via a US Navy Health Professions Scholarship. After completing a Basic Surgery Internship at Naval Medical Center San Diego, Allen spent four years as a Medical Officer with the USMC Infantry. On leaving the Navy he trained in Emergency Medicine at the University Of California -San Francisco - Fresno EM Program in Fresno, CA, completing as one of two Chief Residents in 2001. Allen now practices at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas.

Blogging is his major creative outlet: the author of GruntDoc.com beginning in May of 2002 which has been in continuous operation since, making it one of the first and longest-lived medical blogs. (Why GruntDoc? Marine Infantry are somewhat affectionately referred to as 'grunts', thus his blogging pseudonym, GruntDoc).

Gina Rybolt, R.N.

Gina Rybolt is a Registered Nurse in California. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree in 1997. Although she has practiced some medical/surgical and inpatient dialysis nursing, the majority of her career has been in critical care.

Gina is the author of Codeblog: Tales of a Nurse, a weblog started in 2002 specifically geared toward nursing and health care experiences. Along with her experiences at work, she also posts stories submitted by other nurses, doctors, patients, and paramedics. Codeblog has been mentioned in Newsweek, Nurseweek, The Wall Street Journal, Proto Magazine, and was included in the Forbes Best of the Web medical blogs list.

Vijay Sadasivam, MBBS, DMRD, DipNB

Dr. Vijay Sadasivam, MBBS, DMRD, DipNB is a diagnostic radiologist practising in a privately owned community hospital at Salem, Tamil Nadu, India. His areas of interest and expertise include cardiac and whole body computed tomography; obstetric and vascular ultrasonography. He has been blogging on radiology, medicine and other stuff that catch his fancy since 2006. He is a zealous fan of Apple and twitter.

Wallace Sampson, M.D.

Wallace Sampson, MD (Wally to his friends) is a graduate of UC Berkeley, with an MD from the University of California, San Francisco. A recovering (retired, not retiring) hematologist-oncologist, he became interested in medical pseudoscience in 1972 with the Laetrile phenomenon. His former biochemistry professors introduced him into scientific analysis of false claims, and all went uphill from there. At the request of a Stanford faculty committee in 1979 he formed the first medical school course in "holistic medicine," now a course in analysis of false claims accenting "alternative medicine." He left private practice in 1991 to head the Division of Oncology at Santa Clara Valley Med. Center, San Jose, retired in 1997, formed The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine with Paul Kurtz and CSICOP (now CFI). He also served as Chairman of the Cancer Advisory Council of the State of California. He and wife Rita, a retired RN-turned computer specialist, have 5 sons and 9 grandchildren, reside in Los Altos and Aptos, Calif.

Melissa Schaefer, M.D.

Dr. Schaefer is a medical officer in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She received a BS from the University of Notre Dame and obtained her medical degree from Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine. She completed an Emergency Medicine residency at the University of California, Davis and is board certified in emergency medicine. After completing her residency training, she served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer at CDC where she led multiple outbreak investigations in healthcare settings. She currently works on the ambulatory and long-term care team in DHQP. Her efforts focus on infection prevention in ambulatory care settings with a particular emphasis on ambulatory surgical centers (ASC) and issues related to injection safety. She serves as a member of the Health and Human Services (HHS) ASC Workgroup, responsible for development of the National Action Plan to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections in ASCs. Recent work has also included collaboration with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to develop an infection control worksheet evaluating infection control practices in ASCs during facility inspections.

Elaine Schattner, M.D.

Elaine Schattner, M.D., is a physician whose views on healthcare draw on her lifelong experiences as a patient. She is a non-practicing, board-certified medical oncologist and hematologist who teaches at Weill Cornell Medical College where she is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine. Dr. Schattner writes on education, communication and ethics, healthcare news, and medical culture on her blog, Medical Lessons.

Joseph Scherger, M.D.

Joseph E. Scherger, M.D., M.P.H., is Vice President for Primary Care at Eisenhower Medicine Center in Rancho Mirage, California. Dr. Scherger is Clinical Professor of Family & Preventive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine (UCSD). He is also Medical Director for Quality and Informatics at Lumetra. Dr. Scherger’s main focus is on the redesign of office practice using the tools of information technology and quality improvement.

Originally from Delphos, Ohio, Dr. Scherger graduated from the University of Dayton in 1971, summa cum laude. He graduated from the UCLA School of Medicine in 1975, and was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha. He completed a Family Medicine Residency at the University of Washington and received a Masters of Public Health from the University of Washington in 1978. From 1978-80, he served in the National Health Service Corps in Dixon, California, as a migrant health physician, before starting his private practice in Dixon. From 1981-92, Dr. Scherger divided his time between private practice and teaching medical students and residents at UC Davis. From 1988-91, he was a Fellow in the Kellogg National Fellowship Program, focusing on health care reform and quality of life. From 1992-1996, he was Vice President for Family Practice and Primary Care Education at Sharp HealthCare in San Diego. From 1996-2001, he was the Chair of the Department of Family Medicine and the Associate Dean for Primary Care at the University of California Irvine, College of Medicine. From 2001-2003, Dr. Scherger served as founding dean of the Florida State University College of Medicine.

Dr. Scherger has received numerous awards, including being recognized as a “Top Doc” in San Diego for 5 consecutive years, 2004-2008. He was voted Outstanding Clinical Instructor at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine in 1984, 1989 and 1990. In 1989, he was Family Physician of the Year by the American Academy of Family Physicians and the California Academy of Family Physicians. In 1986, he was President of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. In 1992, Dr. Scherger was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1994, he received the Thomas W. Johnson Award for Family Practice Education from the American Academy of Family Physicians. In 2000, he was nominated by the UC Irvine medical students for the AAMC Humanism in Medicine Award. He served on the Institute of Medicine Committee on the Quality of Health Care in America from 1998-2001. Dr. Scherger served on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Board of Family Medicine.

Dr. Scherger serves on the editorial board of Medical Economics. He is the Men’s Health expert and a consultant for Revolution Health, and he covers California for eDocAmerica. He was Editor-in-Chief of Hippocrates, published by the Massachusetts Medical Society, from 1999-2001. He was the first Medical Editor of Family Practice Management. He has authored more than 300 medical publications and has given over 800 invited presentations.

Dr. Scherger enjoys an active family life with his wife, Carol, and two sons, Adrian and Gabriel. He has completed 24 marathons.

Andrew Schorr

Andrew Schorr, a veteran medical journalist and online patient communications pioneer, was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 1996. He was successfully treated in a phase II clinical trial and his disease remains undetectable.

Andrew’s mission is to empower patients with cancer and other serious conditions to play an active role in their healthcare and to become well informed about their choices. He has hosted more than 2,000 medical talk shows, many on the websites of major medical centers, patient advocacy groups, and health foundations. His programs have won numerous awards including the 2009 Top Internet Media Award from the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons and a 2010 Gold Hermes Award for creative communications from the Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals. His webcasts are supported by leading medical institutions including the University if Washington, the University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt University, Northwestern University, Oregon Health and Sciences University, the University of California-San Francisco, and the University of California-San Diego.

Andrew is an active blogger and as a former national television news reporter and producer he enjoys creating numerous video blogs. He has authored an upcoming book entitled The Web Savvy Patient. Andrew lives near Seattle with his wife, Esther, and three children.

Deborah Schwarz, R.P.A.

Before making the move to healthcare communications in 1991, Deborah worked as a Physician Assistant at Columbia University Medical Center for 12 years in adult and pediatric cardiothoracic surgery. As Founder and Executive Director of the Office of External Affairs for the Department of Surgery, Deborah has taken on ever-expanding responsibilities in the field of healthcare communications and outreach. She enjoys developing innovative approaches to communicating with the Department's varied audiences, from patients and referring physicians to researchers and industry representatives.

Joshua Schwimmer, M.D.

Dr. Joshua Schwimmer is a nephrologist practicing in New York City. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at New York University School of Medicine, a Clinical Instructor of Medicine at the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American Society of Nephrology. Teaching is a major focus of his work, and at Columbia, he was named the Medicine Fellow of the Year for excellence in teaching physicians-in-training. Dr. Schwimmer has published broadly on both kidney disease and on medical weblogs. He is particularly interested in the potential of the medical blogosphere and is the author of Kidney Notes, a blog exploring the intersection of medicine, new technologies, and the Internet. He is active in patient care, teaching, clinical research, and blogging on issues related to medicine and technology.

Gary Schwitzer

Gary Schwitzer has specialized in health care journalism in his more than 30-year career in radio, television, interactive multimedia, and online media.

Gary is publisher of the website HealthNewsReview.org, leading a team of more than two dozen people who grade daily health news reporting by major U.S. news organizations. In its first year, the project was honored with several journalism industry awards – the Mirror Award, honoring those who "hold a mirror to their own industry for the public's benefit," and the Knight-Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism. His blog – which is embedded within HealthNewsReview.org – was voted 2009 Best Medical Blog in competition hosted by Medgadget.com.

From 2001-2010, he was a tenured professor on the faculty of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota, teaching health journalism and media ethics. He left that position to devote full time to his online publishing work.

In 2000, Gary was the founding Editor-In-Chief of MayoClinic.com, the Mayo Clinic’s consumer health information website.

During the 1990’s, Gary produced groundbreaking shared decision-making videos for the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making based at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.

He worked for four years at the National Office of the American Heart Association in Dallas.

Gary was a television medical news reporter for 14 years, with positions at CNN in Atlanta, WFAA-TV in Dallas, and WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee. He was head of the medical news unit at CNN, leading the efforts of ten staff members in Atlanta and Washington, D.C. After leaving the television news business, he has frequently been asked to write or speak on the state of medical journalism.

He served two terms as a member of the board of directors of the Association of Health Care Journalists for whom he authored the organization’s Statement of Principles. He also wrote a guide on how to report on medical research studies.

Gary has written about the state of health journalism in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the British Medical Journal, the American Journal of Bioethics, the Journal of Medical Internet Research, PLoS Medicine, Nieman Reports, Quill, Columbia Journalism Review, Poynter.org, The Daily Beast, The American Editor, and MayoClinic.com. In 2009, the Kaiser Family Foundation published and distributed his white paper on "The State of U.S. Health Journalism."

Michael Sevilla, M.D.

Mike Sevilla, M.D., is a board certified family physician based in Northeastern Ohio. He is creator of the blog Doctor Anonymous, which was nominated for Best New Medical Blog in 2006, and also has a live weekly internet radio show of the same name. On his blog, "Dr. A," as he is known, describes himself as a "Family Physician working in the American health care system trying to find the lighter side of life." He is in full-time private practice and holds an appointment as Clinical Assistant Professor in Family Medicine at the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine.

Jennifer Shine Dyer, M.D.

Jennifer Shine Dyer, MD, MPH, FAAP, is a board-certified practicing physician in both Pediatrics and Pediatric Endocrinology and is a member of the Section of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Nationwide Children’s Hospital affiliated with The Ohio State University College of Medicine where she recently earned her MPH degree. She is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and has recently been selected as one of "2010 America’s Top Pediatricians" by the Consumers Research Council of America.

She is an active researcher with ongoing projects that include a geographical analysis by GIS of changes in the complete nutritional environment in central Ohio and correlations with increases in type 2 diabetes incidence in the region to guide health policy. Other projects focus on implementation of telemedicine into diabetes care as well as the development of an iPhone app that delivers a personalized yet automated SMS texting program for teens with diabetes to improve medication adherence.

She is also developing a medical program in connection with the ongoing "Food is Elementary" 28-week nutrition literacy program for young children through the non-profit organization Local Matters in an effort to prevent childhood obesity progression at the community level.

Veronica Sikka, M.D., Ph.D.

Veronica Sikka, MD, PhD, MHA, MPH is a resident in emergency medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Medical Center and an assistant professor with the Department of Health Administration.

Dr. Sikka graduated with her PhD in health policy/health services research and her MD in 2009. She also has a master’s degree in health administration from VCU and a master’s degree in public health from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. She graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s of science from VCU in 2001. She is the chair of the Housestaff Council at VCU and serves as the resident representative on the Capacity and Throughput Committee and Medical Executive Council at her institution.

Dr. Sikka is widely published in professional and peer-reviewed journals on medical care, healthcare reform, and health policy. She has presented her research at national and international conferences in Mumbai, India, and Berlin. Dr. Sikka reviews manuscripts for several emergency medicine and health services research peer-reviewed journals. She has worked with Virginia’s Governor and his Secretaries of Health and Human Services (Marilyn Tavenner) and Technology (Aneesh Chopra) on health information and improving healthcare access taskforces.

Dr. Sikka has won a variety of awards including the Virginia College of Emergency Physicians McDade Resident Research Award, VCU service and leadership awards, a Southern Regional Education Board Doctoral scholarship, and the American Medical Association (AMA) Leadership Award. She has also been awarded several grants from the Alpha Omega Alpha Society, the AMA, and the Emergency Medicine Foundation.

Dr. Sikka has written the book "Step-Up to the Bedside" for medical students and residents preparing for the USMLE exam, and ultimately wants to pursue a career in emergency medicine and health policy with an emphasis on healthcare broadcasting.

P.J. Skerrett

P.J. Skerrett is the editor of the Harvard Heart Letter and a senior editor for InteliHealth. Prior to joining Harvard Health Publications, P.J. was senior editor for the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School and senior news editor for HealthNews. He is co-author of “Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Guide to Healthy Eating” and two other books on health and science. He earned a B.A. in biology from Northwestern University and an M.A. in biology from Washington University.

Charlie Smith, M.D.

Charles W. Smith, M.D., is the Founder, Chairman, and Medical Director of eDocAmerica, and is a board certified family physician with over 25 years of experience in practice.

He is the executive associate dean for clinical affairs at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and is professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine where he has been serving since 1989. In his role at UAMS, he also serves as the medical director for UAMS Medical Center and the physician director of medical informatics at the University. In this role, he is responsible for initiating and implementing software programs to assist physicians in the provision of care at UAMS. He is also responsible for the oversight of the quality of medical care provided at UAMS.

He has served as a national leader in family medicine, as editor of the American Family Physician, a national journal for family physicians, and has also served as the president of the American Board of Family Practice, which is the national certifying body for family physicians.

John Snyder, M.D.

John Snyder, M.D., is Chief of the Section of General Pediatrics and Medical Director of Pediatric Ambulatory Care at Saint Vincent's Hospital in New York City. He is also Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at New York Medical College. Since 1994 Dr. Snyder has been active in pediatric resident and medical student education with a particular interest in evidence based pediatrics. His main area of interest is medical myth and the ways in which parents utilize information in making medical decisions for their children. One area of focus has been vaccine myth, and he lectures frequently on this subject in both academic and community settings.

Dr. Snyder graduated form Mount Sinai School of Medicine and completed his residency training in pediatrics at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. He is board certified in Pediatrics, and is a Fellow of The American Academy of Pediatrics. He is the founding partner of Pediatric Associates of Saint Vincents, a mutli-specialty pediatric faculty practice in New York City.

Dr. Snyder has not ties to industry, and no conflicts of interest regarding any of his writings.

Arjun Srinivasan, M.D.

Dr. Srinivasan is the Associate Director for Healthcare Associated Infection Prevention Programs in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Before coming to CDC he was as Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Infectious Diseases Division at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where he was the founding director of the Johns Hopkins Antibiotic Management Program and the associate hospital epidemiologist. His primary responsibilities include oversight and coordination of efforts to eliminate healthcare associated infections. His research and investigative areas of concentration include outbreak investigations, infection control, multi-drug resistant gram negative pathogens and antimicrobial use. In 2008, he assumed the medical directorship of a new CDC campaign called “Get Smart for Healthcare” which is designed to improve the use of antimicrobials in in-patient healthcare facilities. Dr. Srinivasan has published several articles in peer-reviewed journals on his research in healthcare epidemiology, infection control and antimicrobial use and resistance. He is a member of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.

Steven Strode, M.D.

Dr. Strode is also a board certified family physician with 20+ years of experience in practice. Dr. Strode has served as acting chair of the Department of Family Medicine at UAMS and has also served as the president of the Arkansas Academy of Family Physicians. He is currently Director of the UAMS Telemedicine Program and Medical Director of the UAMS Rural Hospital Program. Dr. Strode shares eDocAmerica coverage responsibilities with Dr. Smith.

Isis The Scientist

Dr. Isis is a cardiopulmonary physiologist at a major U.S. research university. She is a member of the American Physiological Society, the American College of Sports Medicine, and the American Heart Association.

Trained by physicians, engineers, exercise physiologists, and divas, Dr. Isis now studies how the heart and lungs respond to exercise. She believes that understanding how the heart and lungs respond to the stress of exercise can offer insight into disease. She is also interested in the use of exercise and nutrition in the treatment of disease, especially in children.

Dr. Isis blogs about the latest advances in biomedicine and physiology on Scientopia and about the intersection between motherhood and career on ScienceBlogs.

Kenneth Trofatter, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Trofatter trained at Duke University (B.S. Zoology, '73) and Duke University Medical Center (MD, PhD, '79) between 1969 and 1985, completing a residency in OB/GYN and a fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine. He remained on faculty there for a couple of years and then assumed the positions of director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine and medical director of the East Tennessee Regional Perinatal Program at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville (1987-96). Within 5 years there, he advanced to full professor (with tenure), but still foolishly left for brief interludes in chillier climes (chairman of OB/GYN at Mt. Sinai Hospital and professor of OB/GYN at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and then director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine and consultant to 3M Pharmaceuticals at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis/St. Paul), before he returned to his senses and the Southeast in 2002.

His PhD degree is in pathology with a research focus in herpes simplex virus immunology. Primary clinical interests include high risk obstetrics (e.g., diabetes, hypertensive disorders, autoimmune diseases, and thrombophilias in pregnancy), preconceptual counseling, obstetrical ultrasound, Doppler flow velocimetry, recurrent pregnancy loss, virus infections in pregnancy, and screening for aneuploidy in pregnancy. Currently, he is director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine and professor of Clinical Obstetrics in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the University of South Carolina, a part of the University Medical Group at the Greenville Hospital System in Greenville, South Carolina. Outside interests include stamp collecting, soccer, exercise, and outings on his Harley. He is married and has 6 children ranging between 8 and 24 years of age.

Mellanie True Hills

Mellanie True Hills is a patient advocate and heart-health expert. After her brush with death in emergency heart surgery, which was followed later that same year by blood clots and a close call with a stroke, she pledged to use her second chance to help others avoid heart disease and stroke. Already a professional speaker and writer, she left behind her high-tech road warrior career to help others avoid what she had been through.

As a motivational and inspirational speaker, and CEO of True Hills, Inc., she travels extensively, speaking about heart disease, stroke, wellness, prevention, and patient advocacy. She is also the CEO of the American Foundation for Women's Health and founder of StopAfib.org, a non-profit patient advocacy organization providing information and support for those living with atrial fibrillation.

StopAfib.org seeks to raise awareness of atrial fibrillation to decrease afib strokes and to improve quality of life for patients and their families by supporting and enhancing communication with their health-care providers. The organization’s successes include creating Atrial Fibrillation Awareness Month and lobbying with other organizations to gain U.S. Senate designation of September as National Atrial Fibrillation Awareness Month. As a patient advocate, she brings the voice of the atrial fibrillation community to think tanks, health policy discussions in Washington, DC, and to awareness-raising coalitions and partnerships around the globe.

Always an agent of innovation, transformation and change, Mellanie led the creation of one of the first corporate web sites, JCPenney.com, and one of the first corporate intranets. She was a high tech executive at Dell, an executive strategist at Cisco, a world-renowned Internet strategy consultant, a business journalist, and has spoken and consulted from Singapore to Rio de Janeiro and Johannesburg to New Delhi.

Daniel Van Durme, M.D.

Daniel J. Van Durme, M.D., is Professor and Chair of the Department of Family Medicine and Rural Health at the Florida State University College of Medicine in Tallahassee. He previously spent many years in the Tampa Bay area in both full-time private practice and as a faculty at the University of South Florida (USF) College of Medicine.

He is board-certified by the American Board of Family Medicine and has a Certificate of Added Qualifications in Sports Medicine. Dr. Van Durme earned his medical degree from the University of South Florida College of Medicine in 1986, completed his family practice residency training in St. Petersburg, Florida, and completed a visiting fellowship in faculty development and geriatrics at East Carolina University. Dr. Van Durme served as team physician for USF football and other intercollegiate sports, and as team physician for the Tampa Bay Lightning in the National Hockey League, the Tampa Bay Storm in the Arena Football League, and the Tampa Bay Mutiny in the Major League Soccer. In addition to sports medicine, he has a strong interest in dermatology and has extensive experience in teaching other physicians about skin conditions, and has published numerous articles and book chapters on skin disorders.

He has been repeatedly chosen by his peers for listing in The Best Doctors in America since 1995 and in Consumers Guide to Top Doctors since 2002. He has also received numerous awards from the University of South Florida College of Medicine including the nomination for the AAMC Humanism in Medicine Award, the Sir William Osler Award for Outstanding Role Model, the Distinguished Professor Award and the Outstanding Advisor Award.

Dr. Van Durme has also served in many leadership capacities including: Trustee of the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation, the Board of Directors of the Commission on Office Laboratory Accreditation, the American Academy of Family Physicians Board of Directors, the Board of Directors of the National Commission on the Certification of Physician Assistants, and President of the Florida Academy of Family Physicians.

Bryan Vartabedian, M.D.

Dr. Bryan Vartabedian is a pediatric gastroenterologist and assistant professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, TX. He is the author of Colic Solved, the definitive book on screaming, miserable babies published by Ballantine/Random House in 2007. Dr. Vartabedian has written for American Baby, Parenting, Disney's Wondertime and is frequently quoted in the national media on issues related to children's health.

Dr. Vartabedian has treated thousands of children gastroesophageal reflux. He is passionate about the recognition and early diagnosis of reflux in children and speaks nationally on reflux treatment. When he's not writing for The HealthCentral Network he can be found at his blog, Parenting Solved, where he offers "compelling commentary on parenting and children's health."

Peter Wehrwein

Peter Wehrwein has been editor of the Harvard Health Letter since 1999. Before editing the Health Letter, he was editor of the Harvard Public Health Review and director of development communications at the Harvard School of Public Health. Prior to working at Harvard, Peter was a reporter for newspapers in New York, New Jersey, and Minnesota. He has written for Newsweek, The Lancet, Managed Care, and the American Academy of Family Physicians. Peter was a journalism fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health in 1993-94. He earned a B.A. in history from Yale University in 1980.

Jennifer Wider, M.D.

Jennifer Wider, M.D., is a medical advisor for the Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR), a national non-profit organization based in Washington D.C., widely recognized as the thought leader in research on sex differences and dedicated to improving women’s health through advocacy, education, and research.

Dr. Wider is a graduate of Princeton University and received her medical degree in 1999 from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. She is frequently published in newspapers, magazines, and websites and has been a guest on the Today Show, CBS News, Fox News, Good Day New York, and a variety of cable channels. Dr. Wider hosts “Paging Dr. Wider,” a weekly segment on Sirius satellite radio for the Cosmopolitan magazine channel.

Dr. Wider is a past managing editor of the health channel at iVillage.com. She writes a monthly news service article for SWHR and is the author of the consumer health booklet “Just the Facts: What Women Need to Know about Sex Differences in Health” and the book “The Doctor’s Complete College Girls’ Health Guide: From Sex to Drugs to the Freshman Fifteen.”

Steven Wilkins, M.P.H.

Mr. Wilkins has a strong interest in helping improve the quality of physician-patient communications. As a former hospital executive and specialist in consumer health behavior research and communications, he has witnessed first-hand the healing power of trusted relationships between doctors and patients. As a care-giver of wife with Stage 4 lung cancer, he has also witnessed preventable oversights and gaps in physician-patient communications that have had "near catastrophic" consequences for patients.

An author, speaker and blogger (Mind the Gap), Wilkins earned a Bachelor of Arts and Master in Public Health from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He has over 20 years of experience working with numerous hospitals, physician groups and health plans, with a principal focus on help the patients and health care consumers navigate the health care system.

I am a proud native of Michigan and currently live in San Jose, CA with my beautiful, supportive wife. By the way, my wife is alive and well today and I am able to use this blog to share what I have learned since 2004 to the hoped for benefit of both providers and patients.

Felasfa Wodajo, M.D.

Felasfa Wodajo is a bone and soft tissue tumor surgeon (orthopedic oncologist) in the Washington D.C. metro region where he currently serves as Medical Director of Musculoskeletal Oncology at Inova Fairfax Hospital and the Hospital for Children in Northern Virginia. His practice is limited to benign and malignant bone and soft tissue tumors in adults and children.

He did his medical school training at University of California in San Francisco. Afterwards he returned to Washington D.C. to begin training in general surgery at the George Washington University, later changing to orthopedics and finishing at nearby Howard University. He completed a two-year fellowship in orthopedic oncology at the Washington Cancer Institute. He recently completed a book on bone and soft tissue tumors entitled Visual Guide to Musculoskeletal Tumors.

Like the other team members, Felasfa was excited by the rapid proliferation of medical applications for mobile devices, especially the iPhone, but found it difficult to find informed reviews. Felasfa is an editor and partner at iMedicalApps. He also blogs at A Few Thoughts From A Tumor Surgeon and is on Twitter as @OrthoOnc.

Liam Yore, M.D.

Liam trained in Chicago at Northwestern University for both his BA and MD degrees, then completed a residency in Emergency Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. At completion, Liam settled in western Washington State in a large, multi-hospital community-based Emergency Medicine practice. He developed an interest in the administration of the practice and over time became the managing partner and administrator. Exposure to the business side of medicine led to interests in billing and coding, insurance contracting, medical economics, and ultimately, to health care policy. Liam is active in the American College of Emergency Physicians national Reimbursement Committee.

Liam started blogging quite by accident in 2005 and has not yet been able to stop himself. Personal observations, patient care stories, politics, health care policy and the unending wonders that the Emergency Department can produce are freely admixed over at the irreverently titled "Movin' Meat" blog, under the pseudonym "Shadowfax."

"e-Patient Dave" deBronkart

“e-Patient Dave” deBronkart was diagnosed in January 2007 with Stage IV, Grade 4 renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer) at a very late stage. His median survival time at diagnosis was just 24 weeks, with tumors in both lungs, several bones, and muscle tissue, his prognosis was “grim,” as one website described it.

He received great treatment at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center: his surgeon removed the extensive mess (laparoscopically!), and the Biologic Therapy program helped him participate in a clinical trial for the powerful but severe High Dosage Interleukin-2 (HDIL-2). His last treatment was July 23, 2007, and by September it was clear he’d beaten the disease. His remaining lesions have continued to shrink.

An accomplished speaker and writer in his professional life before his illness, today Dave is actively engaged in opening healthcare information directly to patients on an unprecedented level, thus creating a new dynamic in how information is delivered, accessed and used by the patient. This is revolutionizing the relationship between patient and healthcare providers, which in turn will impact insurance, careers/jobs, quality of life and the distribution of finances across the entire spectrum of healthcare.

A year after the diagnosis Dave was invited by his primary physician, Dr. Danny Sands, to join the annual retreat of the e-Patient Scholars Working Group. Founded by the late Tom Ferguson M.D., a true visionary, the group consists of pioneers, both medical and lay, who have been quietly (and not so quietly) altering the balance of power in healthcare, demonstrating that as the internet brings patients together with information and with each other, a new world of Participatory Medicine is evolving, in which patients become potent agents in creating and managing their own health, in partnership with physicians.

Dave immediately saw himself as a match, became an active blogger on e-patients.net, and took on educating himself as much as he could. He went part-time in his day job in 2009 and left industry entirely in 2010 to devote himself full-time to healthcare.

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